pinqy
Gold Member
It does make sense in that the government stopped counting the very long term unemployed in 1994. It's not accurate to assume that everyone who is classified as not in the labor force wishes to be not in the labor force.
No, they didn't. The change you're referring to was for Discouraged workers. Since 1967 they've been counted as "Not in the Labor Force." Before then, they were allowed to be included as unemployed at the interviewers discretion.
From 1976 to 1993, Discouraged were included in alternative measures (the U-7) as those who were willing and able to work but weren't looking because they did not believe they would find work. In 1994 the definition was changed that they must have looked for work sometime in the previous 12 months. Note that lack of time frame doesn't just mean long term, but would also include (as an extreme example) a 17 year old slacker who lives with his parents and doesn't really want a job but claims as his excuse that he's too young/black/white/unskilled etc.
For the longer term people, that someone did look in the last year but has stopped is a good indicator that they really do want a job, while someone who hasn't even looked for work in 4 years is a little suspicious about how likely they really would take a job.