To be honest, traveling some parts of Asia isn't exactly expensive. Only when you get into Korea, Japan, HK. Most of the other places in Asia are pretty cheap, especially if you're backpacking.
Still unemployed! But we are talking edge cases here.
No.
http://www.bls.gov/cps/faq.htm#Ques5
"Persons are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work."
This is the definition used for assembling official statistics. It is unlikely that this is used by companies setting hiring rules.
Well now, that's anyone who currently has no employment, and is applying for a particular job ("actively looked for work"), isn't it?