Yes it does! If you are not collecting it, according to the media and BLS, and your own post, you are not unemployed. Are you really this obtuse or is it deliberate?
No one is reporting any number other than this one to evaluate the jobs situation in the economy. And according to your own post many who do not have a job are not included in the number. De facto, they are not counted in the 7.8% figure being reported. And they are not part of the evaluation being used to determine the state of the economy with regard to unemployment and the TRUE percentage of those working and not working. You are purposely trying to muddy the issue to protect your boy Obama. I am done responding to you as I would do better to attempt to explain calculus to a chimp.
1. If you are not eligible for unemployment, and looking, oryou are counted as unemployed for the purpose of calculating the unemployment rate.
2. if you are collecting unemployment, and looking, or
3. if you have run out of unemployment, and looking,
Ergo, your comment that if "you don’t collect it, you are not counted. If you do collect it you are counted," is false. "False," as in "incorrect," or "not true."