is our economy really this messed up?

YES! And you can thank the Republicans that control the House of Representatives.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/EMRATI...

"From the perspective of employment, the U.S. economy is not recovering but flatlining"

http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/06/alas-my-fore...

In addition, there is the problem that when the new jobs do come into existence, they tend to be low wage jobs:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/20...

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/07/16/real-wag...

And this

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/0...

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2...

is also the result of government policies:

http://rodrik.typepad.com/dani_rodriks_weblog/2008...

https://noompaarchive.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/gov...

http://crookedtimber.org/2010/09/15/review-jacob-h...

Of course, not having a college degree doesn't help you. Not all new college grads are getting good jobs,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/college-g...

but at least they better luck finding any job than those without degrees, and, in the long run, they clearly get better jobs too.

Maybe you should use your free time to get Republicans kicked out of office in 2014 and more Democrats elected?

The problem is that while the economy is adding hundreds of thousands of jobs a month, they are mostly low paying jobs. Then on top of that, for every open job out there, there are 3 people vying for the same job. This makes it very difficult for someone without a college degree to get a job. Don't get discouraged, they are out there. But yes, the economy, while slowly getting better, is still not great for the average person. ie you and me.