People who are not looking — this includes millions of students enrolled in college, plenty of parents who are happy to stay home with young children
and millions more retirees — are not counted in the labor force.
Thus, a single person working two jobs would be counted once by the household survey
(one individual is employed) and twice by the payroll survey (two jobs exist).
The “official” unemployment rate, and the one most frequently cited, is the percentage
of the adult civilian labor force without a job and actively searching for one.
The Labor Department releases its employment report on the first Friday of the following month (or occasionally, the second Friday) at 8:30 a.m.
