Despite the tenth of a percentage point increase in the unemployment rate last month to 9.6, there was actually some good news in the latest U.S. Department of Labor figures.

One bright note was the increase itself. It rose in August because 500,000 discouraged workers who had quit looking for work felt optimistic enough about their prospects to resume their job searches. People who are not actively looking for employment are not counted in the jobless figures.

In another critical measure, private employers added 67,000 jobs, beating analysts’ forecast of an increase of 41,000 in the all-important expectations game. And the government revised upward the June and July figures for private-sector job gains.

Those new figures brightened Wall Street’s day with investors betting – presciently, one hopes – that the chances of a double-dip recession have greatly receded.

The Republicans, carefully not saying what they would do differently, pointed to the numbers as showing that the economic plan of the Democrats and the White House wasn’t working at all. The White House said it showed that its antirecession measures were actually working, but, as President Obama conceded, “it’s not nearly good enough.”

While the August report is cause for guarded optimism, the numbers are not nearly strong enough to revitalize the Democrats’ faltering electoral fortunes.

The “underemployment rate,” which measures both those who have quit looking and part-time workers who want full-time work, is closer to how most people view the job market. That rate actually increased from 16.5 percent to 16.7 percent.

In the recession of 2008 and 2009, the economy lost nearly 8.4 million jobs. So far this year, the Associated Press reports, the private employers have added back 763,000.

Regardless of who’s in office, we have a long, long way to go.