Times.com, 21 Nov 2008, Stephen Gandel
Pink (as in slips) is the new brown. This fall a number of economists began predicting unemployment would rise to 8% during this recession, up from a reading of 6.5% in October. It would be the highest jobless rate in years, but put into historical perspective that forecast isn't too bad. A quarter of all adults were out of work during the Great Depression. More recently, unemployment reached 7.8% in the early 1990s, and climbed all the way to 11% in the beginning of the 1980s. We recovered from both those recessions looking quite sprightly. But beyond the headline number is a growing unease among economists and job market watchers that, for the as many as 2.3 million people who will be asked to leave their cubicles and workspaces in the next year, it might be harder this time around for them to regain their piece of corporate America than in past recessions.
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