Long ago exhausted ways to say this, but as long as no one else wants to put the data in context…
Mecklenburg County is now 35,000 jobs short of the pre-recession high it hit in mid-2008. The brief spring 2010 bump in employment has been cut in half as 7000 jobs have disappeared. Had the workforce not also contracted at the same time — meaning folks giving up or moving away — then the unemployment rate would now be 12 percent instead of 10.4 for November.
Charlotte region? Try 63,000 jobs short of pre-recession levels.
