Unemployment rates are based in household surveying, it’s not related to the number of people collecting unemployment.
You’re right that it’s not a complete picture though, it’s true that anyone disabled or not looking for a job (stay-at-home parents, etc.) is not included as part of the workforce. It looks like one can even be excluded from the stats now if they have not ‘actively searched for employment in the last 4 weeks’. So that can certainly skew the numbers.
Unemployment rates are based in household surveying, it’s not related to the number of people collecting unemployment.
You’re right that it’s not a complete picture though, it’s true that anyone disabled or not looking for a job (stay-at-home parents, etc.) is not included as part of the workforce. It looks like one can even be excluded from the stats now if they have not ‘actively searched for employment in the last 4 weeks’. So that can certainly skew the numbers.