We discuss some important issues concerning multiplicities in quark and gluon jets in e⁺e⁻ annihilation. In QCD the properties of a jet in general depends on two scales, the energy and virtuality of the jet. Frequently theoretical predictions apply to a situation where these scales coincide, while for experimental data they are often different. Thus an analysis to extract e.g. the asymptotic multiplicity ratio C_F/C_A between quark and gluon jets, needs a carefully specified jet definition, together with a calculation of nonleading corrections to the multiplicity evolution. We propose methods to systematically study the separate dependence upon the two scales in experimental data and compare the results with theory. We present jet finding algorithms which correspond well to the theoretically considered jets. We also show that recoil effects add corrections to the modified leading log approximation which are quantitatively important, though formally suppressed at high energies.