How far has America’s economy come since the dawning of the new millennium?

Nowhere, according to a Newsweek piece by Daniel Gross, author of “Dumb Money: How Our Greatest Financial Minds Bankrupted the Nation.”

Gross looked at a number of economic and financial indicators from 1999, and concluded that not all that much happened in the past decade, as most of the indicators in 2009 were at or below the 1999 levels.

Gross explains the plight of six economic and financial indicators in his article. Here are three:

Jobs:

Despite the population growing from 282 million in 2000 to 308 million today, the private sector create very few jobs. In September 2009, 108.59 million people held non-farm private jobs in the United States, and in September 1999, 109.13 million Americans held jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Total non-farm private jobs peaked in November 2007 at 115.70 million. See a chart from the last decade.

Stock market:

The S&P 500 in November 1999 closed at 1,388.91. It peaked at 1,481.41 in November 2007 – the same month jobs peaked – before eventually bottoming out at 797.87 in March 2009. In the end, after all the ups and downs, the S&P 500 is below the 1999 level at 1,098.51 in November 2009. See a full decade chart of the S&P 500.

Median household income:

In the latest 2008 report from the Census Bureau, the median household income decreased from a 1998 level of approximately $53,000 to its 2008 level of just more than $50,000. In the previous 10-year period (1988-1998), the median household income rose approximately $4,000. See the full Census Bureau report.