Unemployment: The mounting scrapheap

The Guardian
"This grim statistical pageant comes in spite of big and bold actions by policymakers. Over the last year, there have been rate cuts, a devaluation of the pound, a giveaway budget and the programme of pumping money into the financial system known as quantitative easing. In normal times, any of these measures would have constituted a big boost; but the lay observer could be forgiven for asking whether they have done any good at all. Unemployment is a lagging indicator – that is, one of the last sets of statistics to improve in a recession. Companies do not tend to go hiring until they are confident about the economic outlook. After the American dotcom bubble burst in 2001, it took around 30 months for the US job market to recover. This is a much bigger recession."