Private sector hiring continues to limp along yet it is growing more than economists expected.

New data from payroll processing company ADP shows that 168,000 private jobs were added in January. More than 160,000 is a good number, but it's not good enough to totally bring down the nation's high rate of unemployment.

Other positive things I see happening include a reduction in personal debt levels we Americans have; new supplies of energy in the United States and Canada; and the quiet return of manufacturing thanks in part to inexpensive natural gas.

Yet it's like the U.S. economy is in third gear, to put it in stick shift terms. We're not in reverse, we're not puttering along in first gear, and we're not booming in fourth or fifth gear.

As I said in a recent interview I did, it's like a bowler who throws the ball down the lane and expects a strike. Their body language starts trying to guide the ball, but they end up with a split or one pin still standing there.

No matter how hard we try, we can't seem to get that strike. Things aren't going great, but they're not terrible either. It's still an unknown. There's a lot of fog on the path to having prosperity again in the U.S.