How Bad Are The Job Losses?

Almost a year after the dramatic plunge into a bad economy and it is still falling. Job losses continue to be the theme-de-jour. But how bad is it? Can anyone tell you what the real picture is like, can anyone predict when it will end? If you have lost your job, we want to hear from you!

In our underground bunkers in the frozen North, our scientists have been studying the data and looking for trends, and frankly the analysis is dizzying. For example, look at this chart:

Based on this chart alone, we see that it is the worst recession ever! But we have to cross check against other data sources here:

Again, it compares this recession to several others, and shows us that not only is it bad, but that the green arrow is now brown. A brown arrow in statistical terms means we are in deep fecal matter. Also note the rate of falling is not slowing down. But wait, if you have any shred of hope left, there is more:

Now the data has been normalized to try to take into account the different circumstances of each recession. In this chart we are no longer the worst ever, but you see we now have a red arrow. In statistical terms this is worse than a brown arrow, but don't expect them to admit it publicly. Next we look by region:

Remember what I just said about red being bad. Keep that in mind. Here is another chart for manufacturing related job losses:

Can you see a trend? There is even more brown and red, indicating things are worse for manufacturing. It makes the previous chart look pale in comparison. With a lot of the jobs either going overseas or going away altogether, the color will not improve soon.

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