Searching hard or hardly searching: How should we measure unemployment?

Overall, we find that changes in the definition of unemployment – especially about the intensity of job search – have a non-trivial effect on the level of unemployment (particularly for the young). [...] Using the unemployment rate in this way conflates various policy outcomes with the issue of whether the unemployment rate is an effective measure of spare capacity in the economy. [...] Consistent with the hypothesis that this would capture some of the pro-cyclicality of the participation rate and thereby reduce the counter-cyclicality of the unemployment rate. [...] Such data may only be used for the purpose of administering the Census and Statistics Act 1905 or performance of functions of the ABS as set out in section 6 of the Australian Bureau of Statistics Act 1975. [...] Any discussion of data limitations or weaknesses is in the context of using the data for statistical purposes and is not related to the ability of the data to support the Australian Taxation Office, Australian Business Register, Department of Social Services and/or Department of Home Affairs’ core operational requirements.