This Recession is Different

If this recession feels different to you, that's because it is different.

This graph put together by Nancy Pelosi's office using BLS data  depicts job losses from the past three recessions we've had and you'll see that this one shows a significantly worse downward trajectory. In fact, since the recession began 13 months ago, we've lost 3.6 million jobs--half of those in the last 3 months, the largest 3-month job loss we've experienced since we began keeping records of these things in 1939.  In January alone, the economy shed 598,000 jobs.

By comparison, the US economy lost 1.6 million jobs in the 1991 recession and 2.7 million jobs in the 2001 dot.com recession.

All of this brings the "official" unemployment rate up to 7.6%, although there are those who argue that the better measure of unemployment is the BLS's U6 measure, which includes "discouraged" workers (those who have given up looking) and those who are working part-time, but would prefer full-time. According to BLS figures, the January U6 rate is at 13.9%--well into double digit unemployment and no end in sight.

This recession is not only larger than any we've experienced in decades, it's also qualitatively different, according to this article in MarketWatch: 

Usually, the pain of job loss is felt most acutely among factory workers, while the vastly larger number of people who work in services, such as banking, retail or health care, are much more likely to retain their jobs.

But this recession is showing America something new: For the first time ever, more private-sector services jobs have been lost than goods-producing jobs have been lost. Since the recession began in December 2007, 1.94 million service jobs have been eliminated compared to 1.80 million in manufacturing, construction and mining.

Many of those lost jobs were in retailing, which has seen its largest job losses since the data collection began in 1939. Through January, 570,000 retailing jobs were gone, representing a record 3.6% of retail jobs. ...

Some economists say many of those jobs will never come back as Americans wean themselves from the easy credit that's fueled their consumption for the past 25 years.

"A lot of them are gone for good," said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist for IHS Global Insight, a major economic consulting firm. "The age of the U.S. and world economy being driven by the U.S. consumer may be in the past."

If this loss of service and retail jobs holds, there will be some serious implications for One Stop customers, many of whom enter the workforce through positions in the service and retail sectors.