The Chart Ben Bernanke Does Not Want To See

The chart below gives an indication of where the decimation of jobs relative to prior recessions stands. As you can, the loss of employment immediately after the most current recession started was sharp; the uptick has been quite weak also. Unless this graphs significantly changes, namely, employment outperforms expectations any talks of a meaningful economic recovery (or “escape velocity” as Mr. Lawrence Summers put it) is wishful thinking.

(graph obtained from "The Recession: when did it end?", printed in The Economist Magazine)