There is no life in America’s market. The recession officially ended in June 2009, but the Great Jobs Recession continues apace. Since the government began to measure the business cycle, no recession has been marked by such high levels of unemployment and underemployment, or followed by such anaemic job growth. More jobs were lost in the recession of 2007 to 2009 than in the previous four recessions combined, and this time it is an agonisingly slow business to replace them. Of the 8.8m jobs lost during the downturn, roughly 900,000 were recovered in 2010, and many of these were temporary census positions. The especially sharp drop in full-time jobs, the duration of long-term unemployment, and the declining average work week are all contributing to concern over the prospects of the US economy.
美國市場毫無生氣。按官方說法，經濟衰退已于2009年6月結束，但就業大衰退(Great Jobs Recession)仍保持高速。自政府開始測算商業周期以來，尚未有一次衰退出現過如此高的失業率與未充分就業率，或是衰退后的就業增長如此乏力。2007至2009年衰退期間的失業人數，比前四次衰退加起來還要多；此外，這次這些崗位的復蘇速度極其緩慢。在衰退期間喪失的880萬份就業崗位中，2010年大約只恢復了90萬份，且其中許多都是臨時的人口普查崗位。全職崗位特大幅度的下滑、長期失業的持續時間、周平均工作時間的減少，均加劇了人們對美國經濟前景的擔憂。