Search La Crescenta, Montrose, La Canada and Sunland Tujunga Real EstateToday it was announced that our economy lost 598,000 jobs in January. The fourth highest number of jobs lost in a single month (the highest was September 1945 with 1,960,000 jobs lost). Every one of the people who lost a job last month is likely to have a difficult time in the months ahead making ends meet and finding a new job. Our best wishes & prayers go out to them.
But let’s look at these figures a little more closely. The fourth highest number of jobs lost in a single month. Let’s compare January 2009 with those other three months:
Comparing January 2009 Unemployment
After hearing that our January unemployment was the fourth highest ever you would never realize that our January unemployment was only half as bad as the unemployment rate in Dec. of 1974. And, only 1/3 of the unemployment in June of 1956.
But since sensational information is what sells TV ads and Newspapers we get the puffed up information in today’s headlines.
Things are certainly serious today but it would be good if we could get a little perspective.
The chart above is based on the following information according to the US Dept of Labor:
Jobs, Statistics and Facts