CHART OF THE DAY….Justin Fox presents this chart showing the pace of unemployment during the past six recessions. Unlike a similar chart that’s been making the rounds, which showed only the 1991 and 2001 recessions, this one shows employment decline in percentage terms, not as raw job losses. This is a better way of doing it since the population of the U.S. has grown substantially since 1974.
But it still looks plenty bad. Right now we can say that this is the worst recession since 1981, but by summer it’s almost certain that we’ll be saying it’s the worst recession since World War II.