The unemployment rate is a "coincident indicator" which improves after leading indicators, like stock prices, building permits, manufacturers' new orders, vendor delivery times, new unemployment claims, etc., have already improved.
If you were looking for a first job or were young, jobs would still be scarce even as the economy had begun to improve.
“Possibly what’s at issue here are the “leading economic indicators” — the signs of economic health that point to recovery even before new jobs become more available.”
I understand how that works, but with this latest round we have a “jobless recovery”, and there was no reason to believe the same wouldn’t happen 20 years ago.