“The jobless recovery will continue until we bring back the exported jobs.”
That’s right; the freebies might discourage people from looking, but it is more to pacify them (there aren’t many jobs anyway, and certainly not many you could raise a family with).
Here is the kicker. Retail sales are still going up. If incomes are stagnate and more people not working, where are the consumers getting money to buy stuff??!! Analysis of retail data show the stores that cater to the wealthy are doing well (rich still getting richer) but stores catering to everyone else are stagnate or show slight declines. Either we have an underground economy or middle class is borrowing to buy stuff.