Historical Financial Crises: Percentage Job Losses From Peak

In this graph the percentage job losses from the peaks are shows for several countries during selected financial crises. Finland (1991: year of start of the contraction) saw the biggest decline in employment; almost 20 percent. Compared to Finland (and most other selected countries) the United States job market is currently not doing that bad. For Sweden of the selected countries it took the longest, during its crisis starting in 1991, for the job market the recover to pre-crisis levels, 17,8 years. 

Luxetveritas

UK: Current Recovery Worse than Depression

In this chart from the Guardian you can see that this recession lasted longer than any recession since the great depression, even longer than the great depression itself.

The Guardian

Percent U.S. Job Losses Great Recession Compared to the Depression

In this post from April last year I already showed the great graph Calculated Risk blog makes each time new (un)employment figures for the United States are released. The current job market crisis is compared to those after the other recessions after WWII for the percent of job losses. Unfortunately there was no data available for the Great Depression. Although not a as detailed as the other graph Calculated Risk was recently able to construct a graph comparing the current crisis with the Depression. It is not as detailed because only yearly estimates are available for the depression. You can see that the current recession is by far not as severe as the Great Depression.

Calculated Risk