How bad is it?

September 2, 2009Jon Brooks No Comments »

The Economic Policy Institute has posted some charts and analysis comparing the jobs deterioration in this recession and previous downturns. What did they come up with? Hint: It’s not pretty. These two charts are particularly telling:

unemploymentchart3

“Employment has decreased much more during this recession—4.8%—than in prior recessions. In particular, during the first nineteen months of the recession of 1981/1982, employment declined by only 2.9%”

jobloss3
“Employment loss during the first eight months of this recession was relatively mild compared to previous recessions but then it fell off a cliff and now far surpasses the employment loss of the early 1980s.”

And of course, if you happen to be a data point on these graphs, it’s even worse than that…

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