Want to know how bad the recession was? 8.75 million jobs lost. Total net hiring in 2010? 909,000

[Godhumor]

(Before anyone jumps on me about the "Was", I am using the official definition of recession.).

But yeah, the 2007-2009 period was a total job sink and killed a massive amount of jobs. 2010, considered the first real year of recovery (Which has lead to 2011 being the year that the recovery is predicted to be self-sustaining), lead to around a 10.3% recovery in jobs. Even as the recovery ramps up, it is going to be a long time to bring back all the jobs lost.

The depths of the recession was staggering.


Data from today's jobless rate report http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

[fasttense]

1. And that does not take into account the 150,000 jobs each month

needed to keep up with population growth.

But don't worry we are in a recovery.

You get to give up your $45,000 a year job for a pissy little minimum wage, no benefits job.

[Godhumor]

2. Net jobs are jobs added back after the fact

They are a net increase in jobs, so we've gained back about 10% of the lost (i.e. we weren't losing ground).