Counting the unemployed? We could measure the extent of unemployment by a count (the number of people who are unemployed) or by giving a rate (the percentage of the labor force that is unemployed). The number of people in the labor force grew from 107 million in 1980, to 126 million in 1990, to 143 million in 2000, to 154 million at the end of 2007. Use these facts to explain why the count of unemployed people is not a valid measure of the extent of unemployment.