California's unemployment rate jumped from 8.4% in November to 9.3% in December. I've never seen an increase like this. The state unemployment measure is now at its highest level since the early 1990s housing collapse there plunged the state into a bad recession. LAT
Housing starts -- new home construction -- is at its lowest level since WWII. (In fact, record keeping for this statistic only began in 1959, but between 1946-1959, the country generally experienced a housing boom.) During WWII, housing construction essentially ceased because of the war effort. With no such excuse now, things are looking pretty dire in the housing sector -- in case you haven't been paying attention for the past two years. Bloomberg
David Leonhart, writing in the Times, said today's economic climate isn't quite as bad as the '81-'82 recession, though he admitted we will probably reach that kind of low. New evidence today shows just how soon that could happen. Weekly jobless claims are at their highest level since 1982. Bloomberg
