I thought this too initially, but the problem is that the unemployed can shift from one category that isn't counted to another that is. Unemployment rate goes up, but the same people still don't have jobs.

What could be said is that it is a non-partisan measurement error both sides can abuse equally.

It makes sense that the rate decreases - people give up hope and stop looking for jobs, or get shitty 3hrs/week jobs, and thus drop out of official statistics, without any actual improvement.

Except that we don't track those numbers, so it could be that earlier in the recession more people were recently out of work, and looking hard, meaning they were counted in this number. Right now, it's been a lot longer, so perhaps many of them have given up, even if they need jobs, so they are no longer being counted.

The number of people needing jobs, regardless of searching might have gone down similarly to the reported number, or it might have stayed exactly the same overall. Without the information, we don't know. I certainly know a few people who need jobs and can't get them, and some of them aren't being counted. Maybe it would be good to find out.