I've always mistrusted the "number of people working", or its variant, "the number of jobs created". The employment statistic must be coupled to the amount of people able to work, which varies, or it is meaningless. There were more people working during the Great Depression, and there were more jobs, than during the economic boom following the Civil War. So what?

Only a ratio or a percentage makes sense when trying to use this statistic as an economic barometer. The number of jobs and the number of people working could increase every year, along with the population, and the unemployment rate could still be climbing.