Unemployment rate – measurement defects and an attempt of their elimination

The algorithm for measuring unemployment rate can be formulated in many ways. Its basic variant is defined as the quotient of unemployed people number and the professionally active population (unemployed and employed). However, sometimes it is indicated that this relationship is based on the number of unemployed people and the production age population. Solving this alternative does not seem difficult. Adopting conventional definitions of unemployment rate components is much more complicated, i.e. the definition of an unemployed and an employed person. Different interpretations of meanings ingrained in these concepts result in an indicator value variation which, by assumption, is supposed to describe accurately the intensity of unemployment phenomenon in a given population. Therefore, it seems founded to pose a question – what should be done to make national and international unemployment statistics more credible? An attempt to solve this problem determines the logical sequence of the discussion presented in the paper (problem identification – recommended solutions)