The president’s remark to business leaders this week was polite, but pointed: “Ask yourselves what you can do for America.”

This advice echoed a point he made in his weekly radio and Internet address. Large corporations are holding immense amounts of cash on their balance sheets, slowing the recovery by hesitating to make investments.

Business has an obligation to invest for future prosperity, the president said in his weekly address, and eventually progress will be measured in job creation as well as profits.

“They should set up shop here and hire our workers and pay decent wages and invest in the future of this nation. That’s their obligation,” Obama said.

That may already be happening. Unemployment fell sharply last month to 9 percent. Only two months ago, the unemployment rate was 9.8 percent, and the steep decline is just one of many signs that the economic recovery is taking hold.

Yet the job market can’t be called healthy. Although hourly wages were up slightly last month, the number of hours worked declined and major employers added a disappointingly small number of employees to their payrolls, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And today’s unemployment rate does not count the long-term unemployed. Millions of workers have essentially dropped out of sight during the recession. This hidden deficit will keep unemployment relatively high even as the economy recovers, as lost workers start looking for work again.

The president is right to portray this as an opportunity for business. The underutilized American workforce provides great capacity for production and profit, once corporate America decides to arise from its defensive crouch.

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Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Nick Cowenhoven at nickc@journaltribune.com.