Graph of the Day: Job Losses in Post-WWII Recessions

From Calculated Risk:

This graph shows the job losses from the start of the employment recession, in percentage terms (as opposed to the number of jobs lost). For the current recession, employment peaked in December 2007, and this recession was a slow starter (in terms of job losses and declines in GDP). However job losses have really picked up in recent months (red line cliff-diving on the graph), and the current recession is now the worst recession in percentage terms since the 1950s – although not in terms of the unemployment rate. …

Employment: Comparing Recessions and Diffusion Index