5.1 million jobs have now been lost since the beginning of 2008

That's the headline at CNN with the subtitle pointing out that 2 million jobs of that over five million jobs lost has happened in 2009.

To put the three-month loss in context, if no more jobs are lost over the next nine months, 2009 would still be the fourth worst year for job losses since the government started tracking the number of workers in 1939.

Unfortunately that context does not take into consideration that more job loss is expected before the economy begins to recover and then when it finally does begin to recover? It will be months, perhaps years before the jobs that have been lost are re-created.

It's a sobering thought, which creates a great deal of contrast in my mind when I think about what I saw in California...