Rosy jobs numbers hide true gloom

Columbus Dispatch: Last week’s national unemployment figures showed another dip in the unemployment rate, to 5.3 percent, and the longest stretch of job growth (57 consecutive months) since World War II.

But just below these numbers lie a very worrisome trend: The percentage of working-age Americans who actually hold a job has declined markedly, with the workforce-participation rate now at its lowest level since the late 1970s, at 62.6 percent. The number of jobs being created in this deceptive “recovery” aren’t even enough to keep pace with population growth, and many of the jobs being created are part-time, resulting also in a large number of Americans who are underemployed (working part time but who desire full-time work).

There also is a risk of further-reaching damage: The longer a person is without a job, the harder it is to get one, so being unemployed for an extended period in this economy may well depress a person’s prospects for the rest of his life.

One thing’s for certain: This is not what a real recovery looks like.