

Time-lapse map of unemployment rates by U.S. county during recession - adamhowell
http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal.html

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danteembermage
What's so great about the Dakotas? My guess is that there is a higher fraction
of agriculture/rancher/self employed that simply scale back employment rather
than the binary in or out of a job. "My small business is not doing very well"
won't likely show up in unemployment statistics.

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nandemo
Perhaps unemployed Dakotans have been moving elsewhere?

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blahedo
A beautiful illustration of the extent to which choice and distribution of
colour influences the interpretation of a graphic. The ominous rushing-in of
the doom-and-gloom purples and greys was just about terrifying (ok, I
exaggerate a little). Would this animation have had the same effect if scaled
from e.g. blue to yellow?

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nostrademons
Actually, yes. It'd just look like the country is on fire then. There've been
similar charts (mostly for foreclosure rates or house prices, and for obesity)
that use red->purple, green->red, and all other sorts of color combinations,
and they all look similarly ominous.

The units are the real issue here. If they'd set the top bracket at 20%, this
chart would be ho-hum. You'd have some splashes of color in Detroit, the Rust
Belt, and Central California, and most of the country would be a moderate
yellow or orange.

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lvecsey
Did we really need those jobs in the first place?

I don't mean whether each individual was benefiting from the income from his
or her job. Collectively, were the jobs a net benefit or drag on the rest of
us?

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lallysingh
There was a NY times post here a little while ago showing the current
unemployment rate broken down by age, gender, race, and education.

Unsurprisingly, the difference in education was enormous. It's not too large a
logical jump to say that some of the existing unskilled jobs were waiting for
automated replacement.

Well, that's one of two options I'm pondering. The other is that the economy's
split into a very literate, "wired", and economically-stable educated class,
and a second "unwired" and economically-unstable class. I don't want to say
illiterate as much as doesn't-read-terribly-much: television news, product
information from salespeople, etc. People who phone or walk in for customer
service, use cash and other forms of nonelectronic payment, shop nearly
exclusively at brick-and-mortar stores, etc. Essentially, an entire, nearly-
closed economy of people who both want human interaction for business and work
as the human actors for the businesses that hire them. If we look at the
economy through this dichotomy, it appears only one of the two fell.

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jhancock
I've noticed that WalMart has cut back on floor and checkout personnel. If I
can't find something, I find a floor staff person and problem solved. These
days, I can walk half the store looking for an employee. Same is true for
HomeDepot, McDonalds, Kroger.

These unskilled laborers were let go not because they didn't provide value,
but because in lean times customers are willing to accept the inconvenience.
They weren't and probably won't be replaced by automation. When the economy is
strong again, customers will complain about such inconveniences and WalMart
will be aggressively hiring again.

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natrius
I find your abundance of faith disturbing. I've seen several stores that have
search kiosks in the pharmacy to help you find items. It's only a matter of
time until retail customer service goes the knowledge base style of online
customer service.

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jhancock
I'm sure some will provide kiosks chasing after similar goals as with self-
checkout. I don't think adoption will be complete during this down economic
turn and it may be cheaper and more customer friendly to provide floor staff
again once the economy improves. Sure this is mostly wishful thinking.

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jsm386
It is really interesting to watch how things were concentrated for the first 6
to 7 months of the recession, and then we fell off the cliff last fall. This
chart is another great way of seeing how that happened:
[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pMscxxELHEg/SsXzzDSUSqI/AAAAAAAAGf...](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pMscxxELHEg/SsXzzDSUSqI/AAAAAAAAGfM/PWX-2daRZ0w/s1600-h/EmploymentJobLossesRecessions.jpg)
(via [http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/10/october-
economic-s...](http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/10/october-economic-
summary-in-graphs.html))

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japherwocky
On behalf of my fellow Michiganders, I'd like to say, "Welcome".

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Jupe
I know what I'll be thankful for this Thanks Giving - very unfortunate to see
the extent of the economic blight so graphically.

Did we jump from 8.5 in September to 10.2 in October? That seems excessive.

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err0
This paints a pretty stark picture. Has any else noticed an increase in
unsolicited calls from head hunters and job offers? I am wondering if it's me
or a leading indicator?

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potatolicious
A good friend of mine is still looking for a job after graduating from college
- and he's been suckered into scammy pyramid scheme interviews already.

Seems like the vermin come out to play when the economy is bad.

Funny/sad part is that he got this lead from a posting on my college's alumni
jobs system.

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cracell
That was terrifying.

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cyen
not as detailed, but another timelapse flash visualization over a longer
period of time - <http://tipstrategies.com/archive/geography-of-jobs/>

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giardini
Time to saddle up and head for Nebraska!

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Hume
Was this done with R?

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Confusion
I don't think this animation adds anything to out understanding of what has
been happening: unemployment has increased everywhere, with about the same
amount.

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zandorg
What a mess!

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DTrejo
I misread 10% as 100%, oops.

