In last week’s State of the Union speech, President Obama took credit for “the lowest unemployment rate in over five years.” On the surface this claim is correct. By the Labor Department’s commonly used measure, 6.7 percent of Americans were unemployed in December 2013, the lowest since October 2008.
Many economists have analyzed data on employment and unemployment over time. This work shows that, for many Americans, the job market is still far from full recovery mode.