Saturday, August 07, 2010

Decline: The Geography of a Recession

Watch the deteriorating transformation of the U.S. economy (via change in the official BLS unemployment figures) from January 2007 to May 2010.

Note: BLS's U-3 data was used in the illustration below and though the video illustrates a dire / deteriorating jobless situation, the true US unemployment rate is actually much worse than that depicted - True unemployment rate >20%


2 comments:

BxCapricorn said...

I was short last week, covered on Friday's big dip, and now I'm neutral. Want to see the future of jobs data, look here...

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/DFINCP?rid=86

When the private sector starts borrowing again...

BxCapricorn said...

Another white paper worth reading...the nation that governs best, governs least...at least economically...

http://research.stlouisfed.org/wp/2010/2010-006.pdf

"We extend earlier models of economic growth and development by exploring the effect of economic freedom on U.S. state employment growth. We find that states with greater economic freedom – defined as the protection of private property and private markets operating with minimal government interference – experienced greater rates of employment growth. In addition, we find that less restrictive state and national government labor market policies have the greatest impact on employment growth in U.S. states. Except for labor market policies, we find that state employment growth is influenced by state and local government policies, but not the policies of all levels of government, including the national government. Our results suggest that policy-makers concerned with employment should seriously consider the degree to which their own labor market policies, as well as those of the national government, may be limiting economic growth and development in their respective states."