The Economy Still Isn’t That Great

President Obama painted a pretty economic picture in his State of the Union address, but is the economy really on solid footing? Writing at the Daily Signal, Katrina Trinko cites data from Heritage Foundation economist James Sherk, who says the reality behind job growth and employment under Obama has been less than stellar. According to Sherk:

– oday’s recession recovery is the slowest in the post-war period, and it was not until midway through last year that the economy recovered the jobs lost during the recession.
– However, those job gains have been from part-time positions, not full-time jobs.
– While unemployment is down to 5.6 percent, it’s largely due to the number of Americans who have dropped out of the labor force. The labor force participation rate today is 62.7 percent, a rate that has not been seen since the 1970s.

Sherk says that only 25 percent of the falling labor force participation rate can be explained by demographics, such as growing numbers of retirees.

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