If the jobless rate continues to climb, as is widely expected, that could generate pressure for another stimulus spending package. But given intensifying concern about the size of federal budget deficits  now projected to exceed $9 trillion within a decade  any new spending could be politically perilous.

The latest snapshot of the nation’s labor situation testified to the drastic improvement since early this year, when nearly 700,000 jobs a month were disappearing. Yet it also underscored the continued bleakness of the economic landscape.

“It’s a good picture compared to where we were, which was just a free fall,” said Dean Baker, a director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. “But compared to anything else, this is just a horrible report. The rate of decline is slowing, but it’s not going to stop. We’re likely on a path toward more than 10 percent unemployment.”

Image Maureen Sanders looked for a job in Parma, Ohio. Credit... Tony Dejak/Associated Press

Most economists see recent improvements as the result of pulling away from the disaster of last fall  when the investment giant Lehman Brothers collapsed, spreading fear throughout the financial system  and not a sign of vigorous growth ahead.

After years of borrowing against soaring home values, tapping credit cards and harvesting stock market winnings to spend in excess of their incomes, millions of households are being forced to conserve. That limits consumer spending, which makes up 70 percent of the nation’s economy. And that makes businesses that might otherwise hire and expand more inclined to hunker down.

“Household balance sheets are shot,” Mr. Ruskin said. From here, spending “has to come from income, and income has to come from employment, and at this juncture it looks like employment will only improve very slowly.”