Economy needs a turn-a-round — know anybody?

National unemployment numbers came out today for August. Another month in a string of 43 straight months of an unemployment rate over 8 percent.

In a recovery, it takes about 300,000 jobs a month to sustain hope. In August only 96,000 were added, and that likely will be revised downward.

But the really bad news is that at the same time America's labor force shrunk by 367,000 people. That's the fewest people working since 1981. See this chart for the cold facts of an economy that's driving people to give up. That's how, by the way, the jobless rate managed to fall from 8.2 percent to 8.1 percent on these lousy numbers. It wasn't the jobs added, it was the big number of people subtracted from the labor force.

Bad news all the way around.

It's no wonder President Obama in his acceptance speech and the Democratic National Convention last night barely mentioned unemployment. There are no good stories to tell. The economy has stagnated and even looks like it is sinking back down. One thing we can say with certainty now is we are in a mess with no end in sight.

The president can say we are in a recovery, just like he said we were in the "Summer of Recovery" two years ago, but let's face it: The president promises a lot of things that just don't come true. He doesn't seem to understand economics or have a new plan to realistically get us out of the mess.

We need a turn-a-round. Know anybody?