The Employment Rate Remains Stuck

The American economy continues to tread water underwater.

Job growth continued to keep pace with population growth in September, leaving the share of Americans with jobs stuck at 58.6 percent, basically the same low level this “employment rate” has maintained since September 2009.

Before the recession, about 63 in 100 American adults had jobs. Now, fewer than 59.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Keeping pace with population growth should not be taken for granted, of course. But it is a commentary on the health of the American economy that the news never seems to get better than this: Once again, things are not worse.

Some will note that the unemployment rate once again declined, to 7.2 percent from 7.3 percent. Better yet, it fell because a modest number of people found jobs, not because people gave up and stopped looking. But it would have been a better sign of economic health if the unemployment rate had increased.

Last month, according to the Commerce Department’s household survey, 133,000 people found jobs, while the ranks of those looking for work swelled by just 73,000. So the ranks of the officially unemployed once again shrank modestly, but only because so many Americans still are not even trying to find jobs.