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  • Slate Interactive: Where and When the Jobs Were Lost, 2007-2009

    Slate has put together an interactive map that shows when job losses hit different areas of the country. For this map, blue is good, as it represents a net increase in jobs for a particular area. Red, is bad. And while the map looks red across much of the country come October, 2008, you'll see red in places like Detroit, New Jersey, and even Orange County, CA in the fall of 2007. Click here to use the interactive map at Slate.

  • 'Surprising Drop' in Unemployment

    The Department of Labor has released the unemployment numbers for November, and the top-line data shows a "surprising drop" in unemployment, as the AP put it . The total number of unemployed dropped slightly to 15.4 million, and the unemployment rate is now at 10.0 percent (charts from the Bureau of Labor Statistics): If the slight drop in the unemployment rate is good news, some of the internal data remains grim. 5.9 million of the 15.4 million unemployed are "long term unemployed"--that is, they have been out of work for at least 27 weeks. That's up 293,000 over October's statistics. And the number of marginally attached workers is now at 2.3 million. Marginally attached workers are people who had looked for work in the last year, but not in the last 4 weeks. They are not counted in the unemployment rate. And 861,000 of the marginally attached workers qualify as "discouraged workers"--individuals who are not currently looking for work because they don't believe there are any jobs. Read the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics here .

  • March Unemployment Figures--and the Bureau of Labor Statistics Methodology

    The Bureau of Labor Statistics released unemployment figures for March this morning. Nonfarm payroll employment dropped 663,000 jobs last month, and unemployment rose to 8.5%--the highest since November 1983 (when the rate was also 8.5%). Manufacturing was hardest hit, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, losing 161,000 jobs in March. Health Care was the only sector with an increase in jobs, adding a modest 8,000 jobs in the month. As bad as these numbers look, the Washington Post points out that the labor market is actually significantly weaker than the official report shows . Groups excluded from the official count include people who are working part time but would rather be working full time, people who want to work but haven't looked for a job in the past month, and people who have become discouraged and given up looking. If those groups are included, the unemployment rate is 16.2 percent, up slightly from February. The Post's Ed O'Keefe provides a good primer of exactly how the BLS goes about compiling and releasing the unemployment figures here: Read the BLS release here .