Adding to the positive signs, a broad measure of unemployment  one that includes those forced to work only part time and those too discouraged to look for work  fell to 17.2 percent, from 17.5 percent in October, the first decline in several months. In addition, job losses in September and October turned out to be far less than previously reported: 250,000 instead of 409,000.

Image Demonstrators outside the White House on Thursday as President Obama met with business leaders and economists to seek ideas for creating jobs. Credit... Michael Reynolds/European Pressphoto Agency

“All this good news is miles above the underlying trend rate of improvement, so we expect a correction in the next month or two,” Ian Shepherdson, chief domestic economist for High Frequency Economics, said in a message to the firm’s clients.

Even without a correction, once the economy turns and hiring resumes, nearly 18 million people are likely to be vying for jobs, as if they were all trying at once to jam themselves through a door too narrow to accommodate more than a few. In a strong economy, the work force seldom grows by more than 300,000 workers a month.

Nearly one-third have an even greater burden. They are the long-term unemployed, out of work for six months or more, and in many cases longer than a year. Not since records were first kept in 1948 has the percentage of long-term unemployed been as high as it is today: 38.3 percent of all those seeking work, or more than 10 percentage points above the previous high, in the aftermath of the early 1980s recession.

“Assuming we have a strong recovery, it will take at least five years or more to get the unemployment rate down to a more normal 5 percent,” said Jan Hatzius, chief domestic economist at Goldman Sachs, adding that the long-term unemployed have lost skills and some of the habits of work because of their extended idleness. Because of this, the nation may have to get used to an unemployment rate that seldom falls below 6 percent.

Annette Mercado, 39, a single mother in Chicago, said that she had retained her skills, even though she has been hunting for work since July of last year, when she was laid off from a $12-an-hour clerical job in a motorcycle accessory shop.

She attributes that layoff to her refusal to work extra hours. “I told them I wasn’t willing to spend more time away from my 14-year-old daughter,” Ms. Mercado said. She spent months scouring Craigslist, CareerBuilder and other job sites, but the best she could do, she said during an interview at the state unemployment office, was temporary holiday season work last December at a liquor store.