By the Numbers: Unemployment at 8.1% and Other Sad Figures

The United States has lost 4.4 million jobs since the recession began officially in December 2007, with the nation’s unemployment now hitting 8.1%. This rate is the highest since December 1983, when the jobless rate was 8.3%. The only pockets of growth in February were in government, education and healthcare services, according to the latest BLS figures.
President Obama says the stimulus will save or create 3.5 million jobs in the next two years, while General Motors, Citigroup, General Electric are iconic U.S. firms crumbling under the recession.
Worldwide revenues for executive search firms dropped 14% in the fourth quarter of 2008 from the same quarter a year earlier.
The Silicon Valley unemployment rate jumped to 9.4% in January, though the California Employment Development Department has not yet released (presumably worse) data for February.
What defines a “Capital D” Depression, anyway? One definition says “a depression is a recession that does not self-correct because of fundamental structural problems in the economy, such as broken banks or a huge trade deficit.”
Harvard Economics professor Robert J. Barro hypothesizes on the odds of a Depression. His article in the Wall Street Journal estimates a roughly one-in-five chance that the U.S. GDP and consumption will fall by 10% or more, something not seen since the early 1930s. He notes, however, that “the bright side of a 20% depression probability is the 80% chance of avoiding a depression.”

Straight Talk for the Recruiting Profession