Commenters are arguing about U-3 versus U-x but the question is really: how should our population think our economy is doing? The rhetoric on the news since 2008 has been: oooh, look at those low unemployment numbers! But reality doesn't seem to have matched the claim that low-unemployment-means-people-are-doing-well... Unemployment was near record lows and wages weren't increasing much (even with a suitable time lag)? Whatever measure we're currently using, it doesn't seem to be serving the population well. Certainly is serving politicians well. How is labor force participation down so much over 20 years if we're doing so well?

(As raised in the comments, it's good to use universal-ish standards so that countries are comparable.)

And I'm not classic "liberal" or "progressive" (I lean (proper, not movement) conservative). This is intended to portray a fairly balanced view of BLS stats...