I want to live like common people...

Just as I began to write this post my Zune (iPods are yesterday's news, Phil knows what's up) put on a fantastic song by the fantastic band Pulp, called Common People. It is coincidentally about poverty, and has a fun little video too. Anyway, full employment. A crucial part of a nation’s wealth, but I wouldn’t say it’s an absolute way of measuring it. It’s the law of diminishing marginal returns (thank you, macroecon): as employees increase, eventually additional employees will produce less than previous ones. Too many workers will mean less productivity and profit. Adam mentioned something like this in his post, “Why employ thousands of people with shovels to build a road when a few people with modern machinery can do the same job?”
Catherine beat me to the Maslow’s Hierarchy case, but I think we might reference it in different ways. Yes, a job can provide for physiological needs, but not every job can help one achieve the levels of esteem and self-actualization. A job in the service industry isn’t going to be an outlet for man’s reason and creative skills, which all add up to certain definitions of wealth (emotionally, as well as materially, content).
Thus, on a national scale full employment does not equal wealth, and on an individual scale having a job does not equal wealth either. But it doesn't hurt. Most of the time.