Recessions 1960 until now

I was thinking today that it might be useful for people to understand the differences between recessions from 1960 until now. If you look at the graphs on page 28 of the April 2nd Time magazine all this becomes very clear.

Starting in the early 1960s recession it went to about 7 percent unemployment and then by the late 1960s it recovered to about 3 to 3.5% unemployment nationwide. Then I believe the first big recession began in the 1970s about the same time as the Arab Oil Embargo around 1973 when unemployment jumped from about 3% to 6% unemployment. It has never recovered to less than about 4% to 5% unemployment since the late 1960s ever since. The second recession of the 1970s began in the middle 1970s and went to about 9% unemployment with a recovery just below 6% unemployment. Then in the early 1980s it went to the highest unmployment (even higher than what we experienced a few year ago in the upper 10% unemployment range). Then in the late 1980s it dropped down to about 5% or so unemployment average nationwide. Then in the early 1990s it shot back up to almost 8% unemployment. Then after Bush 2 came into office there was the after 9-11 recession and unemployment jumped from about 4% to around 6% or more. Then by 2006 it dropped back down to a little over 4% again. Finally during the beggining of the Great Recession it jumped up to 10.1% unemployment and around 8 to 9 million people lost their jobs. We are presently at 8.3% nationwide.

The second graph on page 28 is difficult to describe but it is obvious to anyone that the Great Recession was at the very least 2 to 3 times worse than any other recession since the Great Depression.