How Bad is the Economy Really?

Here is a snippet from this interesting article:

Employment
The indicator that has been garnering a lot of attention recently is the national jobs count. The 3.57 million jobs that have been lost since the recession started in December 2007 are a significant number. However, at 2.6% of the total jobs in the U.S., these losses are not as large as have been seen in previous recessions. Figure 1 compares job losses in each recession since 1945.

Figure 1: Recessions and U.S. Job Losses-A Historical Perspective 1945-Present
Recession	Number of Months	Peak Employment	Month Peak Employment Obtained	Number of Jobs Lost During Downturn	Lost Jobs as a Percent of Total Jobs	Number of Months to Return to Pre-Recession Employment
Feb-Oct 1945	9	41,903,000	Feb-45	3,305,000	7.9%	9 (Jul-46)
Nov 48-Oct 1949	12	45,194,000	Nov-48	2,244,000	5.0%	9 (Jul-50)
Jul 53-May 1954*	11	50,536,000	Jul-53	1,571,000	3.1%	13 (Jun-55)
Aug 57-April 1958	9	53,128,000	Aug-57	2,102,000	4.0%	12 (Apr-59)
Apr 60-Feb 1961	11	54,812,000	Apr-60	1,256,000	2.3%	10 (Dec-61)
Dec 69-Nov 1970	12	71,453,000	Mar-70	1,044,000	1.5%	10 (Sep-71)
Nov 73-Mar 1975*	17	78,634,000	Jul-74	2,115,000	2.7%	11 (Feb-76)
Jan 80-Jul 1980	7	90,991,000	Mar-80	1,159,000	1.3%	6 (Jan-81)
Jul 81-Nov 1982*	17	91,594,000	Jul-81	2,838,000	3.1%	11 (Nov-83)
Jul 90-Mar 1991*	9	109,775,000	Jul-90	1,579,000	1.4%	23 (Feb-93)
Mar 01-Nov 2001*	9	132,500,000	Mar-01	2,678,000	2.0%	39 (Feb-05)
Dec 07-Present	14	138,152,000	Dec-07	3,572,000	2.6%	TBD
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Series (CES), Seasonally Adjusted Data and National Bureau of Economic & Business Research, Business Cycle Dating Committee
*Jobs in these recessions hit their low point after the recession was official declared over. For most, this low point was within a few months. The 2001 recession is the exception--jobs did not reach the trough until August 2003, when total nonfarm jobs reached a low of 129,882,000.

As the chart shows, the current recession is now one of the longest since 1945—exceeded only by the downturns of 1973 and 1981. The current jobs losses are not nearly as severe as those experienced during five previous recessions, when measured as a percent of total jobs.