Illustration Of Depressed U.S. Job Market

For once, there was actually a useful, as long as you ignore his incorrect Keynesian conclusions from the facts he presents, blog post by Paul Krugman as it provided this chart of the employment rate of "prime age" Americans:

This number is useful as it avoids the dangers of both the unemployment rate (that ignores the "hidden" unemployed that wants to have a job but have quit looking for jobs because they believe they have no chance of getting one) and the overall employment rate (that can distort because of demographic shifts between age groups). The chart of course confirms the point I made a few days ago about how the recent uptick in job growth is far from sufficient to compensate for the effects of the slump.