December 2008 unemployment hit 9%, up from 5.4% in December 2007.
That is remarkable how quickly the market has been beaten up locally. A closer examination of the data shows that Construction and Construction-related industries led the way. Nearly every category under Construction has double-digit declines in employment, year-to-year. In manufacturing, wood products have declined double-digits as well, and as expected.
When it comes to figuring out how to prevent the economy from sinking into a Depression, one only needs to understand that the credit markets remain tight, and banks simply won't loan money to expand construction so long as consumer sentiment remains low.
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