Job Losses Mounting Steadily

As I am sure most of you have noticed, there has recently been a spate of so-called economic "experts" popping up all over the airwaves telling us that they can now see the light at the end of the economic tunnel, that things are finally leveling off, and how we are now poised for a roaring economic comeback.

Oh, really?

Sorry, but I am not seeing it. Not anywhere. Not even if I lift up a huge rock and peer underneath it with a flashlight.

Unemployment in this nation is now at a twenty-six year high, and shows no signs of slowing. Remember, the "official" unemployment numbers can be deceiving, as among other things, they usually omit the job-seekers who have given up looking for employment.

Most economists will tell you that the job situation is somewhat of a lagging indicator of the overall economic picture, but my economics professor taught me that that is not exactly the case.

Along that line, the folks at calculatedriskblog.com have done some number-crunching and put together a graph that traces employment trends during every recession since 1948:



(Note: Click on image for larger view)

As you can clearly see, the job losses for the current recession are not even beginning to level off, but are still heading straight for the basement. The only areas that are showing growth in employment are in the health care industry and government, which may be on their way to becoming one in the same in the very near future.

Unfortunately, unless the private sector soon makes a huge comeback, the growth of government will result in less freedom and liberty for us all, as those most precious of commodities are inversely proportional to the size and scope of government.

I see no real economic growth anywhere on the horizon as long as the private sector continues to be strangled by the wrong-headed policies of the current administration, which will not be reversed anytime soon, and are likely to become even more destructive to our economy as time goes on.

Sometimes it looks to me almost if this is all happening deliberately.

I hope I am wrong.