Job Losses in Recessions – Historical Review

Yes, the economy only added 74,000 jobs in December 2013 and the cold weather was the reason. January had to be one of the coldest months ever for the deep South let alone the snow belt areas of the country. OK, maybe we will see improvements as the weather gets warmer but this blog post is not about weather or job gains or losses. 

In comparing the graphs, the “experts” continue to extend out the recovery. Please review each recession and you will notice that most are mild in comparison to the 2007 recession and most had fast recoveries – not so much today. 

I am focusing on the time frame between recessions which means that we went through the entire cycle:

1948

                        5 years

1953

                        4 years

1957

                        3 years

1960

                        9 years

1969

                        5 years

1974

                        6 years

1980

                        1 year

1981

                        9 years

1990

                        11 years

2001

                        6 years

2007

7 years and counting and NOT to optimism let alone euphoria!

So the critical questions are:

            Are we still in the depression area? or

            Are we in the cautiously optimistic area? or

            Are we still in the fear area and heading to another depressed area? or

            When will we be in the euphoria area?

??