Monday, April 25, 2011

Job Numbers Everyone Should Know

The last 11 years have been brutal for anyone looking for a job or seeking a better one. These numbers document why.

In January 2000 America had 130.781 million jobs and had sputtering, weak job growth until December 2007.  Then job seeking became a nightmare.

The Great Recession began in December 2007 and became a near depression in September 2008, wiping out 8.8 million jobs by December 2009.

Job losses from October 2008 to April 2009 were extraordinary, with monthly job losses of 500,000 to 750,000 during that time.

Job losses were reduced to zero by January 2010 and job growth resumed.  From January 2010 to March 2011, 1.6 million jobs have been created.

Those 1.6 million new jobs mean that as of March 2011, the nation had 130.738 million jobs or 43,000 less than eleven years ago.

Jobs are now being created but the hole is deep, the economy fragile, and high gasoline prices themselves are a considerable threat to job creation. 

America needs to rethink job creation and understand that global competition often means a competing national government that is supporting, investing in, or promoting its companies.

2 comments:

  1. As someone who recently experienced this first hand I can attest to the nightmare that trying to find decent employment has become. I have many friends who graduated last year or are about to graduate from elite or 2nd tier institutions with very strong academic records who were shutout of employment, left to choose between taking significant loans for graduate or professional school or what I would describe as "drifting" through post-undergraduate life, simply attempting to make ends meet. These statistics translate into real life bad outcomes even for smart, well qualified, and distinguished young people.

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  2. There is one constant, though: the better-educated, the lower the unemployment rate:
    http://cr4re.com/charts/charts.html#category=Employment&chart=UnemploymentEducationMarch2011.jpg

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