Job Losses Of Recessions Past
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Business, Economy, Jobs
The situation is certainly getting worse and there are no indications I’ve seen that it’ll get better anytime soon…
The United States lost nearly 600,000 jobs last month, sending the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent, the highest in 16 years, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday.News of the increase, up from 7.2 percent, was the latest in a string of dismal reports.
The rate is expected to go higher — up to 9 percent over the next six months, where it is likely to hover through 2010, analysts predict.
One note…I’ve seen some comparing Obama’s selling of the stimulus to Bush’s selling of the Iraq war. While I acknowledge that when Obama talks of dire consequences there is a twinge of Bush in it, I think we can all look to the graph above and see the trouble is real…and that wasn’t the case with Iraq.
And while it’s true that this legislation could define Obama, what else would a different President do in this situation? A stimulus that was 70% tax cuts and 30% spending?
Thoughts?
This entry was posted on Sunday, February 8th, 2009 and is filed under Business, Economy, Jobs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
February 8th, 2009 at 10:46 am
The unemployment rate really does look bad, as do other indicators. Like others who have been hurt pretty badly by the economic crisis, I’m feeling a bit desperate for someone to do something to fix it. However, the more I read, the more confused it becomes, at least in my mind. Some say that Democrats and the mainstream media are making things worse by overplaying the problem for partisan political reasons. Others say we face catastrophe. Each side has its own array of stupefying statistics and dense charts. All we can do, really, is hope that Obama and his advisers have it right.
Your comparison of Obama selling his economic ideas to Bush selling the Iraq war is interesting. Contrary to the mindless “Bush lied” chanting of the left, Bush believed what he was saying, even though he proved to be wrong on important points. I hope Obama proves to be more right.
February 8th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
What I want to see is a similar graph showing unemployment rates, rather than job loss figures. That is the real story, since the workforce has increased over that time period. Thus, the green line would be flatter than the other 2 up until about 3 or 4 months ago.
Not saying actual job loss figures don’t count. But unemployment rates would show a better level of the relative pain. For example, last month, we had a record monthly job loss dating back to 1974. However, overall unemployment rates have been much higher a few times since then than they were in 74 or are today.
February 8th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
IIRC, we also had some higher UR increases in the late 70s & early 89s.
I know this sounds like I’m picking nits. I remember how rough it was back in the 70s & 80s. I’m just looking for a more realistic way of measuring todays problems. From what I remember, it was much worse then. But I was trying to raise a family in Michigan then & I’m retired in Florida now, so it is a little difficult to compare based on my own experience.