Working For A Living...For Now

Brad DeLong has a couple more really, really depressing employment charts.

The BLS says:

And David Rosenberg, via Barry Ritholtz:

We're in terrible trouble here, folks. We've dropped down to civilian-employment ratio levels of the mid 80's, and we've made that drop in roughly two or three years. That's bad. All indications are we may have another year plus of this to go.

That second chart however is the real problem. Five unemployed Americans for each open job position? That's unsustainable for an economy. We're getting to the point where the long-term unemployed are falling through the safety net. States are going broke and having to cut back on services or eliminate them totally just when Americans need them the most.

Too many people are still betting on a V-shaped recovery. It's not going to happen. Best case scenario is a long, steady slog over a decade or so back towards where we were, worst case scenario is a second, more severe recession that would have to be considered a depression. The evidence that the latter is coming in 2010 continues to grow.

It's bad now, real bad.

It will almost certainly get worse, and might even possibly get much, much worse.