At the same time, absolute numbers are likely to give a misleading impression. There are many more Americans and American workers now than were around during previous recessions. SO it’s really incontrovertible that the more sensible way to compare current unemployment circumstances to those of past recessions is to compare the PERCENTS making claims.

Raw numbers are always misleading when used for comparison purposes without accounting for other changes that have occurred over time. For example, this is one reason why the film industry regularly reports record box office receipts. Rising ticket prices and rising population guarantee a continual flow of new “record” receipts, even though they don’t say anything about the percent of americans that watched a given movie.

I wish more people got this, and got it well enough to refrain from reporting raw numbers uncritically. If you say you do get this, but continue to report raw numbers uncritically and without caveat, then the fact is that you really DON’T get it when it comes to using percents to comparisons valid.