Unemployment: A Comparison

Today, the Labor Department reported that nonfarm payrolls (jobs) decreased by 11,000 in November — the smallest decline since the recession began at the close of 2007. The following chart puts that decline into perspective by comparing job losses during the current economic recession (solid red line) to that of the last recession (dashed gold line) and the average recession from 1950-2006 (dashed blue line). As the chart illustrates, the current job market has suffered losses that are more than triple what occurs at the lows of the average recession/job loss cycle.