The declining unemployment rate isn’t the only statistic relevant to the discussion of America's job market. The labor-force participation rate tells a different story altogether, according to Cornell economics professor Steven Kyle.

"There is no question that a lot of people are discouraged from looking for work, aren't finding anything, and are dropping out of the labor force altogether," Kyle tells Newsmax TV in an exclusive interview.

"That's not a good thing and we should hope to see that turn around and would see it if we had a stronger recovery."

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Employers added 165,000 jobs in April, with the growth driving down the unemployment rate to a four-year low of 7.5 percent.

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"If you have a strong recovery from a recession … you would be seeing numbers of 200,000, 300,000, or even higher in the highest growth months," he said.

"One of the things that's really been holding us back is that the government is still posting negative numbers in job growth. The private sector is growing slowly and the government is still shrinking."

Kyle advocated improving the nation's infrastructure.

"We have roads, schools, bridges that all need rebuilding," he said. "We could be doing that at zero percent interest on the money right now and instead we seem to be waiting until it's going to be 5 percent interest on the money to get those things done. And things are going to need to be rebuilt instead of just repaired."

The private sector, with an improved economy, could also contribute more to the growth scenario.

"Businesses are sitting on, [by] some estimates, as [much] as $2 trillion of cash … and why should they do anything but sit on it when there's no demand for their products," he said.

"We could inspire them to get that money working again if we have the economy moving a little faster."

Kyle said he sees the economy "trudging" along when asked for his outlook for the rest of the year.

"Call it 1 percent, 2 percent growth for the year," he said. "That is on the assumption that we don’t have any big negative shocks, that nothing in the Middle East blows up, that the Europeans don’t suffer a complete meltdown, and, of course, we all know those wildcards could occur and, if they do, we're not in such a strong state that we would easily withstand it."

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