Shouldn't the Jobless Claims Rate = Unemployment Rate?

Jobless claims rate can be broken down into two indicators, initial (people filing for unemployment benefits for the first time), and continuing (people who have been receiving unemployment benefits)

I’ve been doing some calculations and if:

U.S. Population = 313.9 million
Jobless Claims = 323,000 as of 9/6/2013

I’m getting a percentage of 10.3% Jobless Claims Rate

How come the unemployment rate is 7.3% ???

[QUOTE=“youngwallstreet;530358”]Jobless claims rate can be broken down into two indicators, initial (people filing for unemployment benefits for the first time), and continuing (people who have been receiving unemployment benefits)

I’ve been doing some calculations and if:

U.S. Population = 313.9 million
Jobless Claims = 323,000 as of 9/6/2013

I’m getting a percentage of 10.3% Jobless Claims Rate

How come the unemployment rate is 7.3% ???[/QUOTE]

Lol for starters 323,000 is not 10.3% of 313,900,000…

Second, that’s not how the un employment rate is calculated… It’s based on the WORKFORCE of the country versus those looking for work who are currently un employed. Not the general population versus those who are getting unemployment benefits…

People who are not looking for work are not considered “un employed” … Otherwise babies and children would skew the rate horribly. And there can be people looking for work who are not claiming jobless benefits but are considered employed.