Friday’s job numbers sounded a sharp and discordant note for Americans going into this Labor Day weekend. Amid record government spending, and two years after the economy stopped shrinking in the Great Recession, the United States added zero net jobs for the month of August. The modest job gains for June and July were also revised downward for a total loss of 58,000. Unemployment remains high, and would be even higher if so many Americans weren’t giving up on finding work. The employment-to-population ratio – that is, the number of jobs divided by the working-age population — is still hovering near a multi-decade low, as is the share of Americans who are either working or seeking work. The percentage of Americans who work for a living is beginning to approach levels from before women entered the work force en masse in the 1970s.

As we have noted before, President Obama did not cause the financial crisis, the panic, or the recession that marked the very beginning of his term in office. But over two-and-a-half years into his presidency, Obama has effectively taken ownership of the economy. There is no more room for him to blame his predecessor for the lack of recovery.