Unemployment Calculations

Often times the misinformed will argue that official unemployment figures are inaccurate because they don't include those who have exhausted their Unemployment Insurance benefits. This, of course, is wrong. Collecting unemployment benefits has nothing whatsoever to do with how the official unemployment rate is calculated.

From the USDOL

Is the count of unemployed persons limited to just those people receiving unemployment
insurance benefits?

No; the estimate of unemployment is based on a monthly sample survey of households.
All persons who are without jobs and are actively seeking and available to work are
included among the unemployed. (People on temporary layoff are included even if
they do not actively seek work.) There is no requirement or question relating to
unemployment insurance benefits in the monthly survey.

See FAQ at USDOL

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.faq.htm