The United States labor force preparation rate, which is the measure of how many of its citizens are working or seeking work, has steadily increased starting in September, 2015.

Even those who gave up searching for work are now beginning their job searches.

Americans now have valid reasons for their optimisms. The country's unemployment rate has been steady at 4.9 percent for months and there were 2.6 million jobs added in 2015. These are two good signs that the economy is on the way up.

Even African Americans are encouraged to get back to work. A report in Nov. 6, 2015 indicated that the October 2015 unemployment numbers for this sector is at 9.2 percent, higher than the country's rate of 4.9 percent.

This is a higher rate than the national average but when viewed on a broader perspective, the real picture will emerge. When President Obama started his administration in January 2009, the black unemployment rate was 12.6 percent. That rate even got worse steadily and peaked in 2011 reaching 16.7 percent in August 2011.

Since then, black unemployment rate has steadily gone down bringing the rate almost half as that of its peak.

But the participation rate is still down. It hit its lowest point in September, in almost 40 years. This rate refers to the number of people who are either actively looking for work or are already employed.

The rate has been going down since 2000. A natural reason for this is that the Baby Boomers are retiring. However, since the recession of 2008, a lot of the younger set has also chosen to drop out of the job market thinking that they couldn't find work.

But the rate has picked up recently. It was 62.9 percent in February, up from September's 62.4 percent.

"This is important because labor force activity had weakened so much since the Great Recession began...and had shown very little sign of recovery until late last year," said Harry Holzer, a professor at Georgetown University and a Brookings Institution fellow.