No One Works

Wow!  Yes, the story really does seem to change quite a bit depending on the ratio/statistic presented:

CNN.com has a great article up right now, "The other unemployment rate", Oct 18, 2012.

...41% of working-age Americans are out of a job for one reason or another.

And I would say the evidence has been right in front of my face all along. If I take a PTO day, the stores/doctor's offices/roads are STILL crowded with people - weekend or weekday.

My father used to bitterly joke on his days off from a shift-job, when crowds of people were seemingly milling around during the weekdays, spending money at the stores, "No one works."

About 5% of the adult population is "unemployed" in the technical sense of the word, meaning they don't have jobs but they looked for one in the last four weeks. Another 3% want a job but haven't search for one for at least a month.

That leaves about 82 million people who simply don't want a job. About 60% of them are either over age 65 or under age 25. Presumably, many are retirees or full-time students.
But the rest are in their prime working years, between ages 25 and 65.