New unemployment data takes us back to the 80s

Still got your job? Lucky you.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today that the economy lost 663,000 jobs in March, bringing the total amount of job losses to 5.1 million and the unemployment rate to 8.5 percent, the worst since 1983.

Yup, 1983, when I was but a wee one-year-old youngin', grooving to Culture Club's "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" in a babyseat in my parent's yellow Volkswagon bug (we're from California).

The Labor department reported today that had part-time and discouraged workers been factored in, the unemployment rate would have been 15.6 percent in March, which would have been the highest on record since 1994. And move over France: Today's report also highlighted that the average work week in March dropped to 33.2 hours, a new record low.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com, told the Associated Press: "It's an ugly report and April is going to be equally as bad." Time to brace for those April showers in more ways than one.

Oh and if you want to be Debbie Downer and drop a little unemployment trivia tidbit at your next cocktail party: Since the recession began in December 2007, two-thirds of the 5.1 million jobs in total that have been lost have occurred in the last five months.