Putting 80,000 Jobs in Perspective

Today the analysts at Financial Times poured over company announcements around the world and totaled up the job cuts and came to the conclusion that over eighty thousand jobs have been eliminated – worldwide – in the last five days.

With the financial and economic stories dominating the news media for the last month we have all been exposed to so many numbers that they have stopped having any real meaning anymore.  I may be overly cynical, but I think a big part of why the Bush administrator’s Treasury department asked for $700,000,000 (seven hundred billion) dollars is to create a callous on American minds when it comes to very large numbers.

Eighty-thousand is much smaller than seven hundred billion, but its still large enough to not be easily grasped, so lets put it in perspective.

I spent much of my childhood in Glades County, Florida and most of my family still lives there.  The US Census bureau says that as of 2005, Glades County had a population of just over 11,000 people so this week, over seven jobs were eliminated for every man, woman, and child in my home county.

To put it in a larger context, as many jobs were eliminated at Citibank alone (52,000) as there are residents of Carson City, Nevada.  Over all, this week more jobs were eliminated than there are adults and children living in the Sandusky, Ohio metropolitan area.

More than 80,000 jobs cut in just five days
By Andrew Taylor in London
Published: November 21 2008 17:50 | Last updated: November 21 2008 17:50

More than 80,000 job losses were announced around the world this week as the global recession tightened its grip in virtually every business sector.

A Financial Times study of company announcements, press briefings and union statements over the past five working days reveals the spread and depth of the downturn.

Jobs have haemorrhaged from businesses as diverse as a Chicago kosher hot dog factory, a German airline and car plants in Japan. Companies have been forced into savage cost cutting as the effects of the credit crunch have sapped confidence and sent order books and commodity prices plummeting.