The Obama administration is touting 154,000 new private sector jobs in July, a number that provided some solace to official Washington. But Friday's Labor Department report gave analysts few positive indicators that the economy is on the rebound.

With the unemployment rate hovering at 9.1. percent, down one-tenth of a percent from June, the report showed 13.9 million unemployed people, 6.2 million who have been out of work for more than six months.

Also telling is the 63.9 percent of the civilian labor force -- or 153.2 million people -- that is working. That's the lowest ratio of employed-to-unemployed civilians since January 1984. The employment-to-population ratio hit 58.1 percent, the lowest percentage since July 1983...