Regular readers know I am a fan of the Calculated Risk blog. The guy that runs it offers perspective and insight on a variety of economic indicators, often putting them into easy to understand charts and graphs. Form time to time, CR will take a step back from the current data, and take more of a longview. Here's a great post on the jobs numbers, and what they mean, long term.
And we have to remember the numbers are grim:
• There are 7.7 million fewer payroll jobs now than before the recession started in December 2007.
• Almost 14 million Americans are unemployed.
• Of those unemployed, 6.2 million have been unemployed for six months or more.
• Another 8.4 million are working part time for economic reasons,
• About 4 million more have left the labor force since the start of the recession (we can see this in the dramatic drop in the labor force participation rate),
• of those who have left the labor force, about 1 million are available for work, but are discouraged and have given up.
A simple calculation: If the economy is adding 125,000 jobs per month (average over two months), it would take over 5 years to add back the 7.7 million lost payroll jobs - and that doesn't even include population growth. Grim is an understatement.
As I have been saying for quite some time, this is a long way from being over.
