The US economy is in good shape

Unemployment The unemployment rate of 5.5% sounds good, but there are a few reasons why it's misleading. First, the number does not include the millions of people who have not looked for work even though they are able to and/or want to, if they haven't searched for a job in the past four weeks. (http://useconomy.about.com...) This is manifest in our current labor force participation rate of 62.9% (http://data.bls.gov..., as of May, 2015) This means that more than 1/3 of people currently able to work are not working! Underemployment Included in the 62.9% of people in the labor force that are currently employed, many are only part-time workers, and many are low-wage. The US actually is a leading country in low wage jobs, in the United States, according to the OECD, 25.3 percent of workers had "low-pay""earning less than two-thirds of the median wage. Part time workers currently make up about 15% of workers in the US (EPI analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics' Current Population Survey public data series) Additionally, the current trend in job availability verses job seekers is indicative of rough times now and in the future for job-seeking graduates. "An average of 150,000 new grads enter the workforce per month, creating far more highly-qualified job seekers than there are high-paying jobs." (http://www.businessinsider.com...) In fact, six of the fastest growing jobs in the US right now, are low-paying. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com...) Also close to half of Americans (Census Bureau) receive government assistance in some form. There are also about 46 million people households receiving food stamps from the SNAP program. That means one sixth of people in our country are requesting help just to buy food. Economic Growth Our current GDP growth percentage is about zero and has been negative for the past few years.(http://www.tradingeconomics.com...) Median Household Incomes. 2013 is the latest year in which Median Household Income is available. It was $51,900 in 2013, (Census Bureau) That's 8 percent lower than in 2007, before the recession began. According to the Telegraph, the U.S. is the world's most powerful economy, and expected to stay that way. That is their opinion but it is odd how they come to that conclusion when other countries' GDP growth have been outpacing ours for a few years. In fact, Afghanistan's average GDP growth has been higher than ours over the past five years. (http://data.worldbank.org...) Indeed, if you read the comments on the Telegraph article you linked, most readers share my skepticism in America's positive economic outlook. "According to a national survey, 70% of Americans believe the U.S. economy is permanently damaged, while 84% do not believe the economy has improved since the recession ended in 2009." To sum up what I think our current economic situation is, I'll use a quote from a stock market, financial, and economic analysis site. "The U.S. Economic Outlook for 2015 will be significantly different depending on your vantage point. If you"re wealthy, 2015 will probably be another year of celebratory wealth creation. If, on the other hand, you"re not, 2015 will feel an awful lot like 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009. Wall Street and the U.S. government will tell you the economy is doing well, but it won"t feel like it." (www.profitconfidential.com/economic-analysis/economic-outlook-for-2015/)