Do you see it? Look! Over there? I think I...wait a minute, maybe not...YES! I do see one!

It's a job opening! Quick, catch it before it can run away!

A definite green shoot of recovery!

Well...maybe not:

Despite signs that the economy has resumed growing, unemployed Americans now confront a job market that is bleaker than ever in the current recession, and employment prospects are still getting worse.

Job seekers now outnumber openings six to one, the worst ratio since the government began tracking open positions in 2000. According to the Labor Department's latest numbers, from July, only 2.4 million full-time permanent jobs were open, with 14.5 million people officially unemployed.

And even though the pace of layoffs is slowing, many companies remain anxious about growth prospects in the months ahead, making them reluctant to add to their payrolls.

Let's get in a time machine and go back to 2004. Do you think the lede to this story would have been "Despite signs that the economy has resumed growing...?" Or would it have been something like, "Another sign of economic Armageddon that reflects the failure of Bush Administration policies..."

Would someone please tell me why we are in the beginnings of a "recovery" when the only reason jobs aren't being lost at the same rate they were months ago is because most companies have trimmed all the employees that it is possible to do without going out of business? The economy is so bad that those same companies are not creating any jobs and don't believe the administration when they say things are getting better.

It would have been nice if Peter Goodman of the New York Times had not tried to snow his readers about economic conditions.