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For the past two years, employment in the US has grown at a respectable rate of 182,000 jobs per month, and the unemployment rate has fallen to 6.7 per cent. However, it has taken longer to return to pre-recession employment levels than in any recovery since WWII. Although it will probably happen this year, the recession and slower-than-normal recovery have left the economy with several critical imbalances. Chief among these is the large pool of unemployed, particularly those who have been unsuccessfully looking for a job for a half year or more. This legacy of the recession has reduced the number of skilled workers available to fill job openings and has left millions of people dependent on the nation's social safety nets. Economic growth depends upon a highly skilled workforce with the social protections of adequate health care and social insurance. The decisions Congress makes in 2014 to help correct these imbalances and shore up social safety nets may prove pivotal for putting the economy on a more solid foundation as the remaining stimulus measures lapse.

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