This is, Now, the Third Unemployment Map of the United States That I'm Posting Here

This map showed unemployment at the county level. And this map showed the unemployment rate over time at the state level. Now, in a sort of Hegelian synthesis of recession cartography, Slate has an interactive and animated map of county-level unemployment rates evolving over time since before the economy went skydiving with a parachute of ornamental cutlery.



Blues are good. Reds are bad. Circle sizes show number of jobs gained or lost.

What's great about this one is that the animation really lets you see how the recession spread - first out of Michigan and the industrial Midwest (which was sort of never out of recession to begin with), then to the bubble-towns of Florida and Southern California, before invading manufacturing areas in the South and other areas on the coasts, and finally pretty much everywhere else in the country that doesn't have an energy-based economy. (I wonder how much of the relative strength of the economies in places like Louisiana, Texas, and Alaska has to do with the huge spike in oil prices during 2008.) And as employment attrition marches grimly across the land, an azure sea of hearty growth becomes, over time, stained a bloody red. The map really explodes with big red vircles in January of this year.

You can also mouse over counties to see their numbers, though the feature is a bit wonky; it seems really determined to make me see that Suffolk County, NY has lost 19,642 jobs since February 2008, but won't let me know what's gone on in New York City, about the job market of which I have more than a passing interest at the moment. Still, a very good map with a ton of information.