During the late 1990s, hundreds of thousands of non-productive jobs were added willy-nilly at as frantic a pace as the technology bubble was inflating.
When the bubble burst, those speculative jobs vanished as rapidly as the do-nothing companies at which they were counted.
Bottom line is that there were too many speculative jobs and the equilibrium has come back to normal.
More manufacturing jobs were lost during the Clinton years than during Bush's tenure.
Manufacturing jobs have been hemmoraging at a steady pace in the USA for 40 years.
The same people looking for work in 2004 were looking for work in 2000.
Those who lost their jobs when the bubble burst have found other employment.
There are more people at work now than in 2000.
More people own their own homes and net wealth per family is at record levels.
Last I looked, nobody was starving out there.
If anything, too many people have it too soft and the obesity problem has ballooned.