Chewy, you pinned it. Our collective wages may pale next to others or even seem close to poverty (in some areas of the US, they are!) but we have all the gadgets and what-nots we want. We can easily afford all we consider to be wants (except that acreage of timber in the midst of nowhere
) and certainly all the needs are covered.
I have never found US unemployment stats to be enlightening, true or even interesting. Kind of like the testing procedures in public schools: they don't test how much the kids know. They test what the teachers have taught the kids in order to pass a certain set of tests.