THE GREAT RECESSION: A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF ITS EFFECTS ON UNEMPLOYMENT

Miranda M. Zhang
Stephanie Peppas
Spero Peppas
Tyler T. Yu
Georgia Gwinnett College
ABSTRACT
Although the Great Recession is over, its impact is far from being fully estimated,
and there are important economic lessons still to be learned. As a major casualty of the Great
Recession, employment suffered, with unemployment soaring into the double digits and
lingering at an unacceptably high level for several years. This study examines if the Great
Recession in the US affected the Northeast, the South, the Midwest and the West equally. This
study also, determines the correlation between education and unemployment and tests the
differences in unemployment among different levels of education. In addition, this study
examines potential differences in rates of unemployment between males and females and if
there is a difference in unemployment among four racial/ethnic groups.
The findings of this study revealed the following: (1) Unemployment rates, during
and after the Great Recession, reached and remained at high levels for certain states, with
rates soaring into the double digits. (2) The unemployment rate varied with the level of
education. The higher the level of education, the lower the unemployment rate. (3) The
unemployment rate of male workers was consistently higher than that of female workers. (4)
African Americans and Hispanics overall had much higher unemployment rates than did
Whites and Asians.