Persistent unemployment

Greg Mankiw looks at unemployment and sees something scary. I agree:

[image error]

He observes:

"This recession looks very different, and much more troubling, than those in the recent past."

What is different? Lots of things certainly, but look at employment in the construction industry:

[image error]

From the mid-1990s through 2006, construction employment accelerated and grew much more quickly than the previous trend. You can see previous recessions in the construction employment data–it takes anywhere from 2-3 years for ...