The State of the Economy
Posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
The United States economy is in the midst of a crisis the like of which has not been seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and its nature seems to be completely unique. The simple truth is that without a good historical analogue to the current recession, there is no good way to predict how long this current situation might last, or how bad it might get, but we can at least look at it in context to get a better feel for the big picture.
At the forefront of most people’s concerns is the increasing tempo of layoffs and cutbacks. So just how bad is the job loss we’re currently undergoing? It’s quite bad. In the past 13 months some 3.6 million jobs have been lost – compared with a total of 1.6 million jobs lost in the 1990-1991 recession and 2.7 million jobs lost in the 2001 recession. And the lost jobs are crossing sectors with a ferocity never seen before in such a short period of time, with the unemployment rate up to 3.8% even for those holding college degrees, the highest it has been since the Labor Department started recording this data. The unemployment rate for those who held only an associate’s degree or had limited college is up to 6.2%, also the highest it has been recorded.