This picture captures the employment ratio bounce back since the last recession. The employment-population ratio measures the percentage of working age Americans that have jobs. After falling dramatically during 2008-2009, it has not bounced back and has been hovering between 58 and 59 percent.
This next chart shows the present level as compared with the level of employment participation found after every other recession since the second world war. We can also see that the 2008-09 recession brought the biggest plunge and smallest bounce back ever in the last 70 years.
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And yet there was news recently that new car sales have bounced back in the US. Makes you wonder how some of these people can afford to buy a new car with so much uncertainty re the economy and probably their jobs if they have one