Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Depression economies

The global economic recession resulted in massive job losses globally. the decline in manufacturing, services, and other sectors have left many job less and in depression.

A review of the searches conducted on the internet using Google search engine reveals that the searches for depression increased significantly in October 2008. The weeks following October 2008 experienced a decline until early November. The lowest point was observed at the time of US Presidential elections in November 2008.

The see-saw ride for depression continued in November and then declined until Christmas. The anticipation of holidays could have taken the mind off of the grim employment prospect for many unemployed workers. However, as the new year started, the credit card bills poured in in the second week of January when the searches for depression started their upward climb and reached a peak in early March 2009.

From March 2009 to early July 2009, there has been a decline in the searches for the word depression. However, there has been an increase in the search for depression in the past few months, suggesting that the green shoots may be too weak to take root. Are the prospects of even more job losses on the rise?

Another economic bellwether phrase is bankruptcy. The graph below suggests that the searches for bankruptcy increased sharply in September 2008. From September 2008 to May 2009, the search for bankruptcy saw a steady trend. However, the first week of June 2009 saw a huge spike in bankruptcy searches.

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