Saturday, April 30, 2011

Jobs Lost During the Great Recession

The April issue of the Monthly Labor Review, released yesterday, describes job losses during the Great Recession industry by industry. As the overview states, "The downturn in employment accompanying the 2007-09 recession was notable for its prolonged length, for affecting an especially wide range of industries, and for being deeper than any other downturn since World War II."

Change in employment by industry, December 2007 — June 2009
Construction: -1,500,000
Financial activities: -785,000
Health care: +428,000
Leisure & hospitality: -454,000
Manufacturing: -2,000,000
Mining: -44,000
Professional & business services: -1,600,000
Retail trade: -1,000,000

The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that although the recession officially ended in June 2009, another 1.2 million jobs were lost in the following months until employment bottomed out in February 2010. The total number of jobs lost from the pre-recession peak until the February 2010 bottom: 8.8 million.

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