why the GOP is no longer even paying lip service to jobs.

even if you're not working.

Never mind for a moment that these are initial claims of the newly unemployed rather than a count of the unemployed, your statement would be false even if it were relevant.

The count of the unemployed leading to UE rates are arrived at by huge surveys which are not connected in any way to benefits, and are even handled by different departments.

All you have to do to be in the headline U3 rate is have looked for a job once in the last month. Doesn't matter if your benefits expired decades ago, if you were denied them, or if you never tried. Not even asked about benefits.

All you have to do to be in the broader U5 and U6 rates is to have looked for a job just oncein a whole year. Again - benefits are not even considered.

If you haven't looked for a job just once in a year you either don't want one or are so restricted that you could not do one. There is no way in which benefits eligibility impacts the count of anything other than those receiving benefits. This number actually is reported, but gets hardly any notice precisely because it s disconnected from the labor market and unemployment as a whole.

Or like here in TX where if you get dumped from a 30hr/wk job you get nothing, thanks to pRick Perry.

"And if you used up your benefits and don't bother filing anymore you're NOT counted as unemployed even if you're not working."

...are worried about Americans who have been out of work for more than two years and still have no jobs, no unemployment benefits...nothing?

I saw the post about the VA rep stating that he can't live off $174,000 per year. From personal knowledge of people living in the DC area, I know damn well he's full of shit. Given the number of days Congress works each year, if he wants more income, get a second job. He'll have better luck than the people who have been searching for years and are still unemployed.