Geography of Unemployment

Looking at pain has never been this much fun.

Slate Magazine published this great interactive map of employment by county in the U. S. This is very cool. If you click on the green arrow, you'll see changes in the number of jobs by county from 2006 to the present. I like to look at change in the number of jobs rather than unemployment data, since Federal unemployment data understates unemployment by excluding anyone considered long-term unemployed. Intuitively, this makes as much sense as excluding those hospitalized from Flu statistics. Some rather quirky economists believe actual unemployment may be as high as twice the reported rates. No doubt the truth lies somewhere between the Gubmint and the quirkies. In any event, I know what I'm not doing on Monday morning.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.