Unemployment rate. This represents the proportion of the civilian labor force that is unemployed.

Unemployed persons. All persons who: 1) had no employment during the reference week; 2) were available for work, except for temporary illness; and 3) had made specific efforts, such as contacting employers, to find employment sometime during the 4-week period ending with the reference week. Persons who were waiting to be recalled to a job from which they had been laid off need not have been looking for work to be classified as unemployed.

Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Handbook of Methods