Nice chart showing where the jobs were lost during the recession and where they have been regained. Thank God for Fast Food, Bars and an aging population...

This chart is from the terrific blog EMSI. It shows the change in the number of jobs during the official time span of the recession (light blue bar) and the change in the number of jobs after the official end of the recession (dark blue bar).

If a bar swings to the left of the center line it shows the number of jobs lost in that time period. If it swings right the number of jobs gained.

"Information" and "Government" are the only two sectors that lost jobs during the recession AND continued to do so AFTER the recession.

Interestingly enough, "Healthcare and Social Services", "Educational Services (Private)" and "Utilities" are sectors that added jobs during AND after the recession.

The glaring sore spots are Manufacturing and Construction (mostly residential construction).  In nominal terms, those sectors lost the most jobs and have not come close to making them up.

Those sectors are not likely to regain there lofty status anytime soon.  Construction is more likely to recover to at least parity, but manufacturing will continue to transition from a labor intensive industry to a capital/technology intensive one.