Notice the unemployment rate continued to increase after the recession, although it didn't increase to incredibly high levels. However, it hovered around approximately 5.75%-6.25% for almost two years after the end of the recession.
Above is a chart of total non-farm payrolls for 2000-December 2003. Simply eyeballing the chart, notice that total numbers decreased from approximately 132.4 million to a little below 130 million. That means total jobs lost were about 2.4 million.
Above is a chart of total durable goods manufacturing. Eyeballing this chart, notice that total employment fell from about 10.8 million to about 8.8 million -- or approximately 2 million jobs. That means that durable goods manufacturing job losses were the primary reason for the job losses of the early 2000s recession.
Above is a chart of total durable goods manufacturing employment for the early 2000s expansion. Notice that unlike the 1990s expansion, there jobs did not come back.
Above is a chart of productivity. Notice that despite the decrease in durable goods employment, productivity (output per man hour) continued to increase. In addition,
Above is a chart of total durable industrial production. Notice it started to increase at the end of the 2001 recession.
So -- the second jobless recovery was caused by a drop in durable goods manufacturing employment during and immediately after the recession which was not followed by a rehiring of durable goods employees. This is in direct contrast to the 1990s expansion when durable goods employees were eventually rehired. However, this decrease employment was not accompanied by a drop in manufacturing output. In fact, manufacturing output continued to increase, much as it had in the 1990s expansion.
