An Update on Unemployment

Since we last looked at the unemployment numbers 10 months ago, things have gotten dramatically worse. According to the official numbers, we are now at a record 9.8% unemployment:

This makes this “recession” the absolute worse in modern history, with an almost 5% swing in unemployment over 2 years. Clearly, not only are millions of people being displaced, but whole industries are dying and being reformed.

The graph of “civilians unemployed 27 weeks or longer” shows that over 5 million people have been out of work for over half a year:

However, there’s hope. A look at the graph for people unemployed for less than 5 weeks shows a sharp drop off in the recently unemployed:

If this trend continues, it’s the best indicator that we might be pulling out of this recession in early 2010.