How do you measure the level of unemployment in a developed economy?

Bureau of LAbor Statistics uses two surveys: one is a monthly phone survey of at least 60,000 households. The other is a survey of thousands of employers.

From survey data, BLS produces many unemployment tables. The key one is the national unemployment count: the number of US workers who are actively seeking work this month, but have no paycheck. That number of jobseekers is divided by the total workforce: everyone employed, self employed and without a paycheck but looking. Currently about 10% of the workforce meets the definition of unemployed.

BLS does NOT count only those with unemployment insurance, since about 35% of those who meet the definition of unemployed do not qualify for UI benefits.

Some loons outside BLS claim they know the number is larger, because BLS does not include as unemployed folks NOT seeking work who COULD work, such as full time students, the totally disabled or temporarily severly ill, folks without transportation required to take a job or job hunt, and those who have a start date for a job in the near future. The loons are wrong.