Or more accurately, graphics, since there's nothing else in the world that gets econo-nerds' visual proclivities going quite like the data-rich jobs report -- which today provided some more evidence that the bottom of the current downturn is behind us. Here's a selection of some of the best charts from around the web.
The New York TimescomparesAlso at the Times, David Leonhardt's job-market distress indicator is still uncomfortably high, but not quite as bad as during the '81-'82 recession:
Calculated Risk points out that, at 9.4 percent, the current unemployment rate is higher than the hypothetical worst-case scenario used in the government's stress tests (click for bigger):
Calculated Risk also shows how the employment-population ratio, which captures the "discouraged worker" effect, has fallen off a table this recession (click for bigger):
EconompicData (via Ritholtz) plots the widening gap between jop openings and the unemployed:
And I'll finish with one of my own. This chart compares the current recession with the average for the two other post-WWII recessions that lasted at least 17 months ('73-'75,'81-'82). It shows the monthly percentage change in the number of employed people in the economy:
The implication is that, although the trend in job losses is not unusual this time around, our recession has been a particularly nasty one. Which, as this next graphic from the IMF shows, is a typical outcome for downturns associated with financial crises: