Most commentary on the terrible employment report has focused on the establishment numbers, because the number from the household survey that usually makes headlines, the unemployment rate, didn’t rise all that much. But the jobs picture from the establishment survey looks terrible, too; what held the unemployment rate down was a reduction in the number of people who said they were looking for work.

The chart above shows the employment-population ratio, the ratio of employed Americans to the adult population. By this measure it’s been a weak economy all along — and now it’s falling off a cliff.