Unemployment rates shake things up like numbers on the Richter scale
Add comment March 6th, 2009
You know that saying that it’s a recession if your neighbor is out of work, but a depression if you are.
In the same vein, it might better reflect our state of mind if unemployment figures were considered like numbers on the Richter Scale.
An earthquake that measures 5.0 on the Richter scale has a shaking amplitude 10 times larger than one that measures 4.0.
Likewise, it sure feels like Rockford area jobs are being shaken exponentially compared with the nation’s, where the U.S. unemployment figures at 8.1 percent in February reported today is putting economic watchers in a tizzy.
Hell-O! In Rockford, the jobless rate in December, the latest reported so far, was 13.2 percent, and Beloit’s was 15.1 percent in January.
Of course, all the jobless figures are expected to worsen.
But like the saying goes, recession if it’s your neighbor’s problem, depression if it’s yours.
