A Frightening Look At The Labor Market Recovery (CHART)

After Friday's grim jobs data, which showed that the U.S. added just 39,000 net jobs in November, it's worth noting again just how severely the recession has impacted the job market.

This disturbing chart -- repeatedly referred to as "the scariest job chart ever" by Henry Blodget -- from Calculated Risk shows, in percentage terms, how the job market has failed to rebound at the rates seen after previous recessions. "This is by far the worst post-WWII employment recession," Calculated Risk notes.

With 15 million officially unemployed, the job situation may actually be worse than the headline figures. As HuffPost's Peter S. Goodman noted, some 17 percent of Americans couldn't find enough work or had given up looking for work in November. Among black Americans the unemployment rate hit 16 percent, compared to 9.8 percent nationally.

All of which makes it even more troubling that 4 million Americans are set to lose unemployment benefits even if Congress passes an extension to the 99-week limit, as HuffPost's Shahien Nasiripour reported last week. As millions of Americans lose a crucial source of income, the economy is sure to suffer as a result.

The social costs of a mass lapse in unemployment benefits could be even more devastating. "Look for homelessness to rise and food lines to get longer as we approach Christmas if the situation can't be resolved," Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial, told the AP.

Check out the chart below -- and check out Calculated Risk for more information:

Comments

[Name Not In Use]

04:45 AM on 12/28/2010

25% unemployment here soon?

http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts

[infonomics]

07:39 AM on 12/08/2010

An employer's market, as we clearly have now, creates a sinister situation that few discuss. Prior to the 2008 economic collapse, polls indicated that 40% of Americans lived from paycheck to paycheck. With the current economic malaise, that stat is probably up to 60% or higher. Guess what happens when people live so precariously? Their backbones turn to jelly in the workplace. They will do anything to keep their jobs, especially turning their heads. Don't be surprised if we see another Enron times two within the next couple of years.

[InsiteFX]

02:48 AM on 12/08/2010

If you really want to see how bad it is. Read This!

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

[Name Not In Use]

04:41 AM on 12/28/2010

Or this:
http://www.shadowstats.com/

[JimInNevada]

11:43 AM on 12/07/2010

Notice how the rate of recovery has slowed as more PCs came into the workplace. It confirms what should be obvious: high productivity = high unemployment. At some point -- hopefully soon -- we need to recognize that the only way to create more job openings is to move to a four-day workweek or lower the retirement age to 60.

[wdw505]

12:58 PM on 12/07/2010

no i require OT every week

[WASanford]

01:09 PM on 12/07/2010

You're absolutely right! Those jobs lost to increased productivity just aren't going to come back and we need to rethink the way we work. Lowering the work week to 32 hours would effectively mean a 20% decrease in our workforce and would come close to solving our unemployment problem. It would not just put more workers back to work, it would also put upward pressure on wages. Both are desirable!

Workers in their 50's who have lost their jobs are very unlikely to be reemployed. Early retirement for them would put an additional dent in the size of our workforce and put additional money into our economy as well. These are pluses on both counts.

[wdw505]

04:04 PM on 12/07/2010

no, i would be forced to scale back wages

[sysadmin12439]

07:10 PM on 12/06/2010

I'm curious about something: does the red line represent "Hopey" or "Changey?"

[tata06]

10:24 PM on 12/06/2010

No, it represents what it is....Bush's recession

[bbrecht]

08:19 AM on 12/07/2010

No it represents cynicism and defeat; the long term pay off of 30 years of Reagan economics, tax cuts for the rich, involvement in wars instead of investing at home, free trade agreements and the assistance given corporations to relocate in other countries. This is the Walmart economy. Roosters coming home to roost, except, we have no roosters.......

[Middle Blue]

05:36 PM on 12/06/2010

If someone had some actual political courage, s/he would change the debate to how America should run a moon-shot economic program to generate US jobs for what's next -- Like nanotech, biotech, clean energy....­... s/he would be talking about putting Americans first in all policy; notice 'Americans­' not 'interests­' or 'security' or vague hopes or fears; Americans. That's us. We own the place. We don't need a bailout, we need politician­s to stop bailing out on us for money.

[happypatb]

05:35 PM on 12/06/2010

Agreed, the chart is scary. Of course, did we need former internet stock guru Henry Blodget to tell us that? The chart speaks for itseslf.

[sysadmin12439]

07:11 PM on 12/06/2010

It speaks for Obama. Aren't you glad you voted for him?

[plumbergirl]

08:13 PM on 12/06/2010

He wasn't in office in 2007

[Jennifer Mullen]

08:19 PM on 12/06/2010

Explain to me again how this is Obama's fault?

[fjm]

02:50 PM on 12/06/2010

We are waving the worst of 11 recessions in 60 years .
We had recessions no matter who was in office
The politicians take credit for the good times and get blamed for the bad
The guys that cause the problem seem to make money ether way

[ClintBMD]

02:52 PM on 12/06/2010

You are in error. Prior to this fiasco, 7 of the last 9 recessions occurred during a Republican administration (post-Depression).

[fjm]

03:02 PM on 12/06/2010

My first error today but the point was the Dems have had some too

[gnryushi]

09:35 PM on 12/06/2010

Actually you're in error. fjm is correct. U.S. politicians think they have power over the business cycle and can control it like they control the weather. They can't. They don't even have power over the Fed Reserve. But if you want to blame an entity blame the sole issuer of the world's reserve currency: The Fed Reserve. I think we all need to grow up and realize that government does not have our best interests at heart. That goes for all parties in all countries of the world.

[techBob]

09:41 PM on 12/06/2010

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1693084887024293324#

[aceshigh]

02:35 PM on 12/06/2010

The Reagan Revolution is finally complete. The old codger finally destroyed the middle class.

[atl50]

02:21 PM on 12/06/2010

We're cannon fodder for the 2%.

[exigent]

05:03 PM on 12/06/2010

as long as they get to keep their tax cuts, we'll all be fine

[bbrecht]

08:23 AM on 12/07/2010

Nope, they're coming after social security next.

[JoeBlough]

02:15 PM on 12/06/2010

I'm sure Boehner/McConnell understand this very well and Congress will come to our rescue as soon as the GOP is the majority. All it takes is elevated tax cuts for the wealthy and we will be rolling in jobs.

[InsiteFX]

02:37 AM on 12/08/2010

I would not bet on that!

[Michael Masilko]

02:14 PM on 12/06/2010

Small businesses want to hire, but they are being killed with what is called overhead. And many jobs lost this summer, the big companies stocks went up and they made money with laying off employees. Also as I am unemployed, I have ran into a lot of people who are over 50 and say that they feel that they are being discriminated because of their age. I am hearing that more and more it is almost as if people over 50 are useless and at the same time, many young people graduating collage are finding work and that is because most of the fields that they were talked into are the ones that companies are hiring. If you want to know how bad it is? when and attorney gets laid off and has to dig through dumpsters for cans to make extra money, you know its bad!

[ClintBMD]

02:57 PM on 12/06/2010

I am 50. I have been unemployed for nearly a year. I have put out at least 400 resumes and checked every major listing every day - including weekends. I have had exactly three interviews, with an additional phone interview. Of the four, only one was courteous enough to inform me of the decision not to hire me. The jobs I applied for were not only those for which I'm qualified by virtue of profession, but after two months of trying those - I applied for anything that I can intellectually or physically do. There are websites everywhere that detail that people like me are the norm. If you were laid off and over 40, but especially over 50, you are not going to get a job. I have a friend who owns a restaurant. She won't hire me to wash dishes because she thinks it's beneath me and that I'd never stay longer than two weeks. We all hear this. It's disgusting, disheartening, and I would love to see the Congress deal with this, but they're either spineless or heartless. Ugh.

[eamonnc]

09:53 AM on 12/10/2010

Excellent post, I am 57 and have been told " you will never find a full time job". As a 99er I have lost pretty much everything and have applied for everything. Your post reminded mr of when I applied at Taco Bell, I think the manager is still laughing !

[Laz81]

01:29 PM on 12/06/2010

This chart proves one thing, a steady job sector that has withstood the test of time is Chart Making. Yes indeed, keeping records and making charts from data always pays the bills.

You know what sucks? Being the part of the data on a chart known as "the scariest job chart ever". Try to stay out of that.

[Dana1982]

01:21 PM on 12/06/2010

This chart proves two things - 1) that unemployme­nt should be a lifetime benefit, not just 26 or 99 weeks. People are often out of a job for long periods of time and live in places jobs will never return. Unemployme­nt should pay a living wage so people don't starve, get kicked out of their homes or lose health insurance.

2) we need laws that make employers hire the unemployed first. People with jobs already don't need to take jobs away from those who are out of work. And it should be illegal to let these new hires go until they are elegable to receive full unemployed benifits again.

[wdw505]

01:23 PM on 12/06/2010

so how long before an EMP is eligible of this budget busting entitlemen­t.......i have fired a few on their first day and you would try to restrict this by law

laughing

[Dangerous Dan]

01:48 PM on 12/06/2010

It's called welfare, Dear. And that is rising at an alarming rate.
As for hiring the unemployed first, if unemployment is the only criteria, I will gladly quit my current job and go into the unemployment lottery for the job I really want.

[Unlisted2u]

01:13 PM on 12/06/2010

Part 3.

Corporate bigwigs getting record bonus' as one/seventh (approx.) of Our Country's population is in the process of or has already lost their homes (kinda hard to get even a Gov't mandated home mortgage modification when one no longer has a job.) Totally out-of-balance income taxation about ready to be extended. Continued outsourcing of jobs; teachers by the thousands losing their jobs as our school systems continue falling apart at a time when education is more important than ever - Our Country's future grows dumber (and dimmer) by the day! Again, I could go on and on...

And don't EVEN get me started on the role MSM had and is continuing to have in this either! I guess journalistic responsibility takes back seat when it comes to keeping the newspaper alive and the 24/7 news channel's ratings up, huh boys? You could have chosen to push harder about the good accomplishments that came out of the past two years, ya know. But then again, good doesn't sell newspapers or help with viewer ratings, does it?

My $.00213 worth (adjusted.)