You misquoted me. Interesting site, I'll give ya that.... But, the graph was from february 9, 2009 and that job loss graph was incomplete.
Weve already doubled the 1948 recession. You changed the reference point. Unemployment before the war, was upwards of 25%.
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/02/job-losses-during-recessons.htmlFrom the article-
The second graph (that Barry asked me for) shows the job losses from the start of the employment recession, in percentage terms (as opposed to the number of jobs lost).
For the current recession, employment peaked in December 2007, and this recession is about as bad as the 1981 recession in percentage terms at this point.
In the earlier post-war recessions, there were huge swings in manufacturing employment. Now manufacturing is a much smaller percentage of the economy, and the swings aren't as significant because of technological advances. This is the main reason that job losses were larger in those earlier recessions.
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/07/employment-report-467k-jobs-lost-95.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression_in_the_United_Stateshttp://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1528.htmlSource: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1957 (Washington, D.C., 1960), p.70. Depression Era Unemployment Statistics
Year Population Labor
Force Unemployed Percentage of
Labor Force
year population labor force UE % of labor force
1929 88,010,000 49,440,000 1,550,000 3.14
1930 89,550,000 50,080,000 4,340,000 8.67
1931 90,710,000 50,680,000 8,020,000 15.82
1932 91,810,000 51,250,000 12,060,000 23.53
1933 92,950,000 51,840,000 12,830,000 24.75
1934 94,190,000 52,490,000 11,340,000 21.60
1935 95,460,000 53,140,000 10,610,000 19.97
1936 96,700,000 53,740,000 9,030,000 16.80
1937 97,870,000 54,320,000 7,700,000 14.18
1938 99,120,000 54,950,000 10,390,000 18.91
1939 100,360,000 55,600,000 9,480,000 17.05
1940 101,560,000 56,180,000 8,120,000 14.45
1941 102,700,000 57,530,000 5,560,000 9.66
The percentage of unemployment before the war was much worse, than post WWII. That was my point. I never said we didnt have a recession after the war. I had not bothered to look at unemployment figures post war. Interesting that 5% unemployment was considered a recession, compared to today. But, we also had a much smaller economy.
Im going back to my little world, now.