8.8 Counting the unemployed? We could measure the extent of unemployment by a count (the number of people who are unemployed) or by a rate (the percentage of the labor force that is unemployed). The number of people in the labor force grew from 115 million in June 1985, to 132 million in June 1995, to 149 million in June 2005, to 157 million in June 2015. Use these facts to explain why the count of unemployed people is not a valid measure of the extent of unemployment.