pessimism
The numbers they usually use for unemployment don't, as I understand it, include all those who have given up looking.
There are a handful of different employment figures, all generally abbreviated "U" and a single-digit number, and I can never remember which is which but there's one which more accurately represents what we think of when we think "unemployment", and it's not the one that gets reported.
pessimism
@woozle @noelle @Elizafox There's a bunch of them. It's hard to discuss them without context, though. I'm used to hearing unemployment numbers, and can tell that unemployment rate of 4% is low, 10% is high and bad, from lots of context... but labor force participation - is 65% a lot? A little? Know even less about other measures of unemployment.
pessimism
I found this chart here with explanations. https://fredblog.stlouisfed.org/2015/05/the-many-flavors-of-unemployment/
According to any of those measures our recovery LOOKS good, all those numbers are back to where the were before the recession.
What's off about the country isn't being captured by any of those employment numbers...
