As we officially embark into President Obama’s second term today, let’s take a moment to examine the new economic normal with which the voting public is apparently quite comfortable. While we’ve finally, technically fallen below the national eight percent unemployment rate we heard so much about during Obama’s first term, there is a very significant qualifier in that math that communicates nothing really uplifting about where our economy actually stands:

The number of Americans age 16 or older who decided not to work or even to seek a job increased by 8,332,000 to a record 88,839,000 in President Barack Obama’s first term, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. …

The increase in Americans opting out of the labor force during Obama’s first term resulted in a decrease in the labor force participation rate from 65.7 percent in January 2009, the month Obama was first inaugurated, to 63.6 percent in December 2012, the latest month reported. Before Obama took office, the labor force participation rate had not been as low as 63.6 percent since 1981, the year President Ronald Reagan took over from President Jimmy Carter. …

When Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, there were 80,507,000 American civilians age 16 or older who did not have a job or seek one. In December 2012, there were 88,839,000—thus, the increase of 8,332,000. …

The wind may very well be at President Obama’s back in terms of public consensus, but many of those pesky economic “headwinds” are still there — and we’ve got nothing but more of the same proposals for still more government spending for ideas to fix it. Four more years!