Over at voiceofsandiego.org I put up an article about the October employment figures with the typical chart plus a comparison with the 1990s recession. For the chart-happy, additional charts can be found below.
This one is the same as the chart at Voice except in percent terms instead of job terms.
The problem being that there is no more counterweight coming from outside the housing beneficiary sectors:
All of the above track year-over-year changes so that we can see the trends in growth (or shrinkage) without seasonal bumps and vallies distorting the picture. To give an idea of the overall scale of what’s happened to our job market, here is a chart showing the overall percent change from a fixed point two Octobers ago:
http://www.usatoday.com/money
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2008-11-24-biotech-cash_N.htm
Almost 40% of small and midsize public biotechnology companies in the U.S. are in danger of running out of cash within a year and government help is needed to encourage investment, industry leaders say.
We’re at the most difficult time in the history of our industry,” says James Greenwood, chief executive of the Biotechnology Industry Organization.
So, unemployment got to 8.0%
So, unemployment got to 8.0% in oct 1993. Based on govt calculations at that time.(I wonder how much their methodology has changed since then?)
If the recession started in 1990, then that was three years into it. So if this recession started last year, where will we be in 2 more years??? And what if we calculated unemployment today, the same way they did back in 1993??
IMO and others, the govt is not credible for most stats. I think the important thing to take from this is that we are at such high levels of unemployment while being quite early in this contractionary period. Again, where will it be in 2 more years? That’s a long time to gather momentum.