It also doesn't count people who want to work, but have given up after years of trying. IIRC, unemployment is calculated based on the number of people who are actively filing unemployment paperwork.
U4: U3 + "discouraged workers", or those who have stopped looking for work because current economic conditions make them believe that no work is available for them.
Isn't that called discouraged workers and covered under U5 unemployment? Unemployment is not based on the those who filled out the paperwork... it is based on a population survey. They call up random people and ask a series of questions. There are different levels of unemployment like those who are discouraged or underemployed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment#United_States_Bur...
The term "unemployment", said by itself, is ambiguous. I was annoyed that the Bloomberg article didn't specify. (If it did, I missed it.)