The following is an excerpt from George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier, a study of conditions in northern England (Evaluating the Evidence 26.3): "When you see the unemployment figures quoted at two millions, it is fatally easy to take this as meaning that two million people are out of work and the rest of the population is comparatively comfortable. . . .
This is an enormous under-estimate, because, in the first place, the only people shown on unemployment figures are those actually drawing the dole-that is, in general, heads of families. An unemployed man's dependants do not figure on the list unless they too are drawing a separate allowance. . . . In addition there are great numbers of people who are in work but who, from a financial point of view, might equally be unemployed, because they are not drawing anything that can be described as a living wage."
Why did Orwell think that unemployment figures underestimated the number of people who were in dire economic straits?

Question

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Orwell believed that the unemployment figures underestimated the number of people in dire economic straits because they only counted those who were actively drawing the dole as heads of families, and did not include the dependants of unemployed individuals who were not receiving a separate allowance. Additionally, there were many people who, while technically employed, were not earning a living wage and were therefore in a similarly precarious financial situation as those who were officially unemployed.

The Following Is an Excerpt from George Orwell's the Road