Job Losses

Very interesting diary on DailyKos by bonddad attempting to explain what the impact of the recession has been on jobs.

Now, as clearly as I understand it, the US economy needs to grow at the rate of 250,000 jobs a month to keep pace with population growth--and I think, I think!, this this would translate to 0.0% growth in GDP per capita. The addition of 250,000 jobs would make the pie bigger, but you'd have to cut it in more pieces. Its fuzzy, but basically just think of 250,000 new jobs per month as a 0.0% increase in standard of living.

This means that looking at the creation or deletion of jobs needs to take into account the historical nature of a growing economy, as, say, the lost of 10,000 of 1,000,000 jobs is not on the same scale of 10,000 of 100,000, even though those 10,000 are SOL and deserve your sympathy. More later on this.

I've noticed lefties try to use raw data, and indeed the graph in a previous post from the speaker, when percentages are key to understanding the economic impact on job losses. Which is not the whole story, obviously, and in reality looking at one is like looking at the reflection of the other. But I think its perfectly acceptable to use raw data to show the amount of current pain.