Unemployment isn't working

America's wretched economic plight was revealed last week with the announcement that the country gained a mere 88,000 jobs last month. Although the monthly numbers can be unpredictable and erratic, it was less than half the figure that had been expected.

More worryingly, if you look closely, there are good reasons for alarm about the US economy, both in the short term, where political deadlock in Washington is beginning to damage it, and in the medium term, where President Barack Obama above all people should be asking, "What price the American dream?"

The answer is that the American dream is becoming unaffordable for too many people, and the question brings to mind the adage that if you have to ask the price of something, you cannot afford it.

As far as the March numbers are concerned, even the markets, which have been skittishly optimistic, shuddered. The March report was the first since automatic budget cuts began to take effect after the Obama administration and Republicans in Congress failed to reach a deal on the budget.

Pundits weighed in with their prognostications of doom and gloom. Mohamed El-Erian, the chief executive of Pimco, the world's largest bond fund, with almost US$2 trillion under management, described the report as "somewhat worrisome". Economist Brad DeLong wrote simply: "This is a bad employment report."

Beneath the headline figures, there were troubling indicators. The employment-to-adult-population ratio is 58.5 per cent, exactly where it was a year ago, and the labour force participation rate has fallen by 0.5 per cent in the past year, to its lowest level in more than three decades.