> It's not possible to know what a person is doing if they are not part of a program that follows them. For example, I have been unemployed many times for months and there is no way to track me because I was not on unemployment or using any program in my job search. Therefore, acc to Dept of Labor stats, I was not "unemployed".
The headline unemployment figure (and the alternative measures) come by way of the monthly Current Population Survey [0], not data fron unemployment benefit programs. The idea that the unemployment rate is, either definitionally or methodologically, restricted to only include benefit recipients is simply false. It's a popular lie by political propagandists who know the truth and want to push the myth of systematic distortion, and I guess your argument is a natural way for someone who has internalized that propaganda, doesn’t know the methodology, but has seen thr definition to try to rationalize what they have internalized, but its just not true.
[0] https://www.bls.gov/cps/
