Note: This is post #99 in a weekly video series on basic economics.

The official unemployment rate in the U.S. only counts adults who are without a job and have actively looked for work within the past four weeks. Does this mean that unemployment is undercounted?

In this video by Marginal Revolution University, economist Alex Tabarrok explains that while the official unemployment rate may not be perfect, it does provide us with a good indicator of the state of the labor market and where it’s headed.

(If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d mend watching them at 1.5 to 2 times the speed. You can adjust the speed at which the video plays by clicking on “Settings” (the gear symbol) and changing “Speed” from normal to 1.25, 1.5 or 2.)

Clickhereto see other videos in the Introduction to Economics series.