Making Big Ones Into Little Ones

Life on the chain gang? Perhaps, but it also describes this interactive map documenting job creation over the last five years, found by Jim Geraghty. Slide the control knob over the screen with your mouse from 2004 to the present and watch “Big Green Dots Turn Into Big Red Ones”, as Jim writes:

This map, depicting job growth in metropolitan areas, makes an unpopular but hard-to-refute point: The job-creation record of the Bush administration was pretty darn good from January 2004 to mid-2008, with two glaring exceptions — New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and Michigan (thanks, Governor Granholm).

Obviously, mid-2008 was when you started seeing massive job losses across the country. And the job losses in major metropolitan areas since the beginning of 2009 have been on par with Hurricane Katrina’s impact on employment in New Orleans.

And speaking of which, its mayor has been quarantined in China for swine flu. No word yet on when transportation away from this disaster will be possible.