The release of the June Jobs' Report Friday was something of a relief for the markets. The Labor Department reported that the economy gained 195,000 jobs in June, which beat economists' expectations. The Department also reported that the economy gained 70,000 more jobs in April and May than it originally estimated. The report, however, also provides clear evidence that the the nation is splitting into two; only 47% of Americans have a full-time job and those who don't are finding it increasingly out of reach.

Of the 144 million Americans employed last month, only 116 million were working full-time. Friday's report showed that 58.7% of the civilian adult population of 245 million was working last month. Only 47% of Americans, however, had a full-time job.

The market's positive reaction to Friday's report is another sign of how far our economic expectations have fallen. If today the same proportion of Americans worked as just a decade ago, there would be almost 9 million more people working. Just in the last year, almost 2 million Americans have left the labor force. With a majority of the population not holding a full-time job, it isn't surprising that economic growth has been so weak.

In June, the number of Americans who wanted to work full-time, but were forced into part-time jobs because of the economy, jumped 352,000 to over 8 million.

The Jobs' Report is increasingly measuring only a part of the American economy. While Friday's report was better than expected, it only measures those who are working or actively looking for work. There is a growing number of Americans slipping through the cracks of the job market.

Recovery woes: America's second-largest employer is a temp agency
In the first quarter of 2013, U.S. staffing companies employed an average of 2.86 million...
Behind Wal-Mart, the second-largest employer in America is Kelly Services, a temporary work provider.

Friday's disappointing jobs report showed that part-time jobs are at an all-time high, with 28 million Americans now working part-time. The report also showed another disturbing fact: There are now a record number of Americans with temporary jobs.

Approximately 2.7 million, in fact. And the trend has been growing.

In the first quarter of 2013, U.S. staffing companies employed an average of 2.86 million temporary and contract workers, according to the American Staffing Association. This represents a 2.9 percent growth from the same period in 2012. For just the month of June, there was a 6.7 percent growth in the number of staffing jobs than last year.

Temp jobs made up about 10 percent of the jobs lost during the Great Recession, but now make up a tenth of the jobs in the United States. In fact, nearly one-fifth of all jobs gained since the recession ended have been temporary.

It's a sad state of affairs for our country. While part-time and temp jobs reached highs last month, full-time jobs decreased by another 240,000. The recovery, or lack thereof, is being fueled by a shift from full-time to part-time work

record 70.4 million Americans — or 20% of the country — are now on Medicaid, at a cost of $404.1 billion (both federal and state spending). A record 47.8 million Americans – or 15% of the country – are now on food stamps at a cost of $74.6 billion. A record 10.9 million Americans are now collecting Social Security disability payments with a deficit tab of $31.2 billion. That’s a cost of more than half a trillion dollars for those three programs alone.

I suppose you could look at it that way, or you could look it from a broader perspective like only 63% of the population was employed in 2007:

http://stateofworkingamerica.org/charts ... ion-ratio/

The only key development in that time was the "Great Recession" and the "Great Recovery" which resulted in a net labor partipation rate reduction of 6%.

Generally, depending on retirement age, 13-18% of that 53% are retired.

They may be employed full time, but what are the numbers on underemployed?

To say nothing of the ambiguity with this statement:

Is the 13-18% meant to be an absolute figure, or a fraction of the 53% that are unemployed?

What about people by your definition who are retired but employed?

Well I am just saying if you want to exclude from the workforce everyone who is older than 65 because technically they can retire then you just eliminated every employee of Wal-Mart.