you are certainly right about understanding the differences between the various methods of counting unemployment.  I've wanted to look into this issue for years, but just haven't had time--specifically the unemployment vs. household numbers in the US, and then the differences between Europe and USA.  You are right about the shorter period of unemployment benefits in the US.  But it's my understanding that that is not the source of the unemployment figures that are commonly quoted in the US.  I believe those numbers are computed from surveys that are done, and statistics drawn for those--the question being basically, "are you looking for work".  This raises the issue of people getting discouraged and stop looking, and therefore fall out of the numbers altogether.  On the other hand, there's another growing issue of people working as consultants, and somehow being missed as working in some of the other statistics--like the ones that were discussed on this website comparing working people to total population, etc.  but anyway, I don't fully understand the intracacies of this right now.

Maybe I can find some time to look into this one.