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IG of the Day: Employment Since the Recession

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James A. Bacon
in

Click on graph for more legible image.

This chart, found in the Commonwealth Institute’s new report, “Unemployed, Underutilized, Undone: Employment and Labor Force,” shows why the 2007-2009 recession still feels like a recession here in Virginia, even though it technically ended two years ago. In contrast to the past two economic recoveries, this business cycle truly has been a “jobless recovery.”

Among the highlights of the CI report: Unemployment in 2010 was stuck at the highest level since the early 1980s, underemployment was at the highest level in 15 years, and the drop in employment rates for Virginians with low levels of education were roughly twice the drop experienced by their better educated peers.

Digging a little deeper into CI’s report, it is somewhat disconcerting to see that the “bright spots” in Virginia employment, showing the strongest job growth between 2007 and 2011 were: (1) the federal government, (2) education and health services (both of which are experiencing unsustainable bubbles), and (3) state government. Only one private sector occupational category, professional and business services, eked out a barely detectable job gain.

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3 responses to “IG of the Day: Employment Since the Recession”

  1. Hydra Avatar
    Hydra

    It is not so much that the public sector(s) are bright spots as it is That the jobs created by the usually proclaimed job-hunt creators, small business, etc have become a black hole, against which anything else shines brightly.

    That we are having a jobless recovery suggests that we no longer need jobs to have a recovery. What it does not suggest is what to do with the unemployed, or how the benefits of said recovery should be taxed.

  2. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    I’m with Hydra on the current narrative about “job creators” and “small businesses” – the biggest bunch of “hooey” ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting society.

    a relevant analysis would identify which small businesses are essentially those that serve rooftops and which are truly start-ups for technology and/or manufacturing, etc – i.e. additional jobs over and above the rooftop jobs that spring up to serve the basic needs of any population of people.

    the jobs that these small businesses “create” are bottom tier jobs that often do not offer decent family health insurance and slim to non-existent 401k pension plans, instead relying on ..you guessed it…social security – which if the anti-govt, anti-regulation folks get their way – there will be no health care and no pensions – except for the “job creating” owner of course.

    Mom & Pop never did much compared to even the oft-derided WalMart in terms of benefits.

    For every spouse working at a bare minimum benefit job, you’ll often find the other spouse holding on to a public-sector job that provides health care and 401k.

    We are competing against countries that not only have better educated workforces but their small businesses DO provide health-care and pension benefits that allow small businesses and those that work at them much greater employment – and employer mobility.

    Meanwhile back in the good old USA – we are engaged in activities to hunt down and kill any public sector job that offers “benefits” and to allow private sector companies not offer benefits at all….

    In the good old USA these days – if you are not an entrepreneur, you are, by definition, a scum-sucking, entitlement-seeking leech.

  3. Groveton Avatar
    Groveton

    First, the unemployment statistics are cooked. I’d like to see an article where unemployment was measured the same way since World War II and then look at the stats.

    Second, if you outsource enough jobs you’ll eventually run out of jobs. Maybe this was the recession where that finally happened.

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