Unemployment

There are many ways of calculating the unemployment rate, and different methods are used by different entities, Federal or State. Here is a document that defines the six different unemployment rates the Feds are currently promulgating.

   NOTE:  Marginally attached workers are persons who
currently are neither working nor looking for work but
indicate that they want and are available for a job
and have looked for work sometime in the recent past.
 Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally
attached,have given a job-market related reason for not
looking currently for a job.  Persons employed part time
for economic reasons are those who want and are available
for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-
time schedule.For more information, see "BLS introduces
new range of alternative unemployment measures," in the
October 1995 issue of the Monthly Labor Review.  Updated
population controls are introduced annually with the
release of January data.

The U-3 rate is the official unemployment rate, and is based on a phone survey of people all across the country.

  U-5 Total unemployed, plus discouraged workers, plus                                                                                  
     all other marginally attached workers, as a                                                                                      
     percent of the civilian labor force plus all                                                                                     
     marginally attached workers.................10.6%

This is probably a more accurate measure of the current unemployment rate.