The BLS surveys 60,000 (if I recall correctly) households to get a statistical sample. They group people as employed, unemployed and outside of the labor force. If you don't have a job and haven't sent a single resume, filled a single application or talked to a single employer in four weeks (a pretty darn low hurdle in my opinion) the BLS counts you as outside of the workforce instead of unemployed, just the same as if you are retired or a student who isn't available to work right now. I guess you have to have somewhere to count my bum cousin who has worked in the past, but it interfered too much with his life for him to do much of it.
Just like figuring inflation by excluding the cost of food and fuel this is more government deception.
Both the full CPI and "core" CPI are calculated and published every month. The main question is who chooses which one to focus on in news reports? Strange that when fuel and food prices go up the "core" is focused on, but when they go down the full CPI is repeated on the news.
Thanks for the details. As a SS recipient it is irritating to be losing purchasing power every month while the COLA is determined by the core method. Food and fuel are a large part of my budget.