Office of Publications & Special Studies

Sizing up the 2007–09 recession: comparing two key labor market indicators with earlier downturns

Chart 1. Change in the unemployment rate for persons age 16 and older, by number of months from start of recession
Number of months from the start of the recession(1)	Recessionary period
Number of months from the start of the recession(1)	1974–75	1981–82	1990–91	2001	Current period
-6	0.1	0.3	-0.1	-0.4	-0.4
-5	0.1	0.2	-0.2	-0.4	-0.4
-4	0.0	0.2	-0.3	-0.4	-0.4
-3	0.0	0.0	-0.1	-0.4	-0.3
-2	0.0	0.3	-0.1	-0.1	-0.3
-1	-0.2	0.3	-0.3	-0.1	-0.3
0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.0
2	0.3	0.4	0.4	0.0	-0.2
3	0.4	0.7	0.4	0.2	0.1
4	0.3	1.1	0.7	0.3	0.0
5	0.3	1.3	0.8	0.6	0.4
6	0.3	1.4	0.9	0.7	0.5
7	0.6	1.7	1.1	1.0	0.8
8	0.7	1.8	1.3	1.2	1.1
9	0.7	2.1	1.2	1.4	1.2
10	1.1	2.2	1.4	1.4	1.6
11	1.2	2.4	1.4	1.4	1.9
12	1.8	2.6	1.3	1.4	2.4
13	2.4	2.6	1.4	1.6	2.7
14	3.3	2.9	1.4	1.5	3.2
15	3.3	3.2	1.5	1.5	3.6
16	3.8	3.6	1.5	1.5	3.9
17	4.0	3.6	1.8	1.4	4.4
18	4.2	3.2	1.8	1.4	4.5
19	4.0	3.2	1.9	1.4	4.4
20	3.8	3.1	1.9	1.6	4.7
21	3.6	3.0	1.9	1.7	4.8
22	3.6	2.9	2.1	1.5	5.1
23	3.6	2.9	2.3	1.6	5.0
24	3.5	2.2	2.2	1.6	5.0
25	3.4	2.3	2.1	1.7	4.7
26	3.1	2.0	2.1	1.8	4.7
27	2.9	1.6	1.8	2.0	4.7
28	2.8	1.3	1.9	1.9	4.9
29	2.9	1.1	1.9	1.8	4.7
30	2.6	0.8	1.8	1.8	4.5
31	2.8	0.6	1.6	1.7	4.5
32	3.0	0.6	1.5	1.5	4.6
33	3.0	0.5	1.6	1.4	4.6
34	2.8	0.2	1.6	1.4	4.6
35	2.9	0.0	1.5	1.3	4.8
36	3.0	0.3	1.4	1.5
37	3.0	0.3	1.3	1.3
38	2.7	0.1	1.2	1.3
39	2.8	0.2	1.3	1.3
40	2.6	0.0	1.1	1.2
41	2.4	0.1	1.0	1.1
42	2.2	0.1	1.1	1.1
43	2.4	0.0	1.1	1.2
44	2.1	0.0	1.0	1.1
45	2.2	0.1	0.9	1.1
46	2.0	0.0	0.6	1.0
47	2.0	0.2	0.6	1.1
48	2.0	0.2	0.6	0.9
Footnote: (1) Time period zero represents the start of a recession. The dates and length of recessions are determined by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).