The jobs numbers could hardly have been worse. Not only did the unemployment rate rise to 9.2 percent, and the economy create only 18,000 jobs, but the percent of Americans choosing to participate in the labor force declined to 64.1 percent, the same level as in March, 1984. Over 44 percent of the unemployed have been out of work for six months or longer, making their reentry into employment even more difficult.

But one surprise is that some sectors of the workforce are doing better—those with the lowest and the highest skills. Adult women, whose unemployment rates did not decline, are also doing better than men. Their unemployment rate is 8 percent, compared with 9.1 percent for men.

Recommended Stories

Is ‘frontier intelligence’ a sustainable business strategy?

Don’t raise the ceiling without a plan

The Mahoning Valley came home, but it did not come back