Unemployment Rises To 8.3%

[sniper7]

I believe they define unemployment as people out of work seeking a job. Those who are not seeking may still be on unemployment to receive money and will use that benefit until it runs out.
My BIL lost his job last year and had to apply so often in order to keep his unemployment benefits.

He found a 1/2 time job but they still allow him to stay on unemployment....I don't understand this. The .gov makes it beneficial to not have a job or only work under a certain amount of hours and still get the benefit.

If people would get nothing after say 3-6 months of actively looking for employment, then the benefit goes away and you better do something quick even if it means working the cabbage and potato fields.

[Sharpienads]

Here's a link to some basic economics on unemployment and measurement. It's an inexact science at best.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment

The BLS itself uses six different measurements, and that's going to give you six different answers every time. Collecting the data accurately seems difficult, also.

Yes, I am somewhat familiar with the basics of unemployment. My point was if they are "experts", why is it that they are always surprised by the numbers, regardless of if they were better or worse than they expected? I do not consider myself to be an expert, but I am not surprised, and actually expected that unemployment would go up.