The non-farm payrolls figure for March was bad. The economy lost another 663,000 jobs that month. This brought the total jobs lost in the first quarter of 2009 to almost 2 million. Compare that to all of 2008, where “only” just over 3 million jobs were lost all of that year.
At the rate of 2 million a quarter, we would lose 8 million a year… more than 2 ½ times as much as in 2008. This current loss resulted in the unemployment rate rising to 8.5%, the highest reading since late 1983.
The numbers aren’t in yet for April, but another 600k+ jobs are expected to be lost. This would be the 16th straight month of job losses. The record stands at 17 and at this point, it doesn’t look like we have any choice but to break the record.