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WASHINGTON - How bad is the current recession? Here's one measure: the United States now has fewer jobs than it did nine years ago, even though the work force , the number of people either working or looking for work , has grown by 12.5 million people since then.
It's the first time since the Great Depression that a recession has wiped out all the jobs created during the previous business cycle, according to Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank.
That's a "testament to both the enormity of the current crisis and to the extreme weakness of jobs growth from 2000 to 2007," Shierholz said.
The Labor Department said Thursday that U.S. payrolls shrank by 467,000 in June, more than analysts expected. That pushed the unemployment rate up to 9.5 percent, a 26-year high.
There are now 131.7 million jobs in the United States, the department said. That's fewer than in May 2000, when companies reported 131.9 million jobs.
In the most recent business cycle , from the beginning of the last recession in March 2001 until the beginning of the current recession in December 2007 , the economy created about 5.7 million jobs.
But so far, more than 6.5 million jobs have been lost in the current recession. Meanwhile, the total work force grew from 142.4 million in May 2000 to 154.9 people in June 2009, according to Labor Department data.
Here are some other interesting details that can be found in the monthly employment report.
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MISERY LOVES COMPANY
14.7 million: People unemployed in June 2009, the most ever in records dating to 1948
12.1 million: People unemployed in December 1982, the record before the current downturn
9.5 percent: Unemployment rate in June 2009
August 1983: Last time the unemployment rate was this high.
10.8 percent: Unemployment rate in December 1982, the highest since World War II
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JOBLESS FOR MONTHS
29 percent: The proportion of the unemployed who've been out of work six months or longer, a record
24.5 weeks: The average length of unemployment in June, also a record
4.38 million: The number of people unemployed for 27 weeks or longer
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