Was my recession bigger than your recession?
Several blogs have been trying to come to terms with size of US job losses relative to losses after the recessions of 1990 and 2001. The graph on the left, from Time magazine, shows losses from the current recession in green. (The figures were from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.) The graph below - from Big Picture - pits current losses alongside those of 8 other post Second World War recessions, and highlights recovery times.
Both certainly make grim viewing. One thing we’re puzzling with, though, is why the graphs - which compare recessions with reference to absolute numbers of job losses - don’t refer to overall job growth in the relevant period. (Which of course will make job losses at the end of the period appear more pronounced.)
This final image is from an article in a Bureau of Labor Statistics journal dated June 2002, in which the authors analyze the ‘US Employment Miracle’ of the last 40 years of the 20th century. The US, the authors write, enjoyed a job creation rate of 1.8 per cent for almost half a century - second only to Canada’s, and far greater the Europe’s. Worth a mention, at least?
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