"Among other things the government employment figures don't inlcude people who have stopped loooking for work or have been unemployed for a certain amount of time. That's a pretty big hole. How is section 8 (means tested) housing expense going up and up and up if everyone who wants work is working."
You left out the biggie, 30-40 years ago the government changed their "employment" criteria to make statistics look better and included welfare recipients as employed.
Once unemployment runs out, I don't believe you are counted as on the unemployment bandwaggon. Didn't they keep from extending unemployment a few years ago? Probably one reason was to keep the numbers from looking bad.