[COLOR=#1d637d]was a mixed bagToday's jobs report .
We'd break it down into three key ideas:

• Headline jobs growth of 120K was a bit disappointing.
• However, when added with past upward revisions, it was still pretty solid.
• The unemployment rate nicely dropped from 9% to 8.6%, but there was a pretty big exodus of workers from the workforce, so that distorted the number a bit.

All that being said, the jobs recovery remains pretty mediocre, and that's best exemplified by this monthly chart from [COLOR=#1d637d]Calculated Risk[/COLOR], which we've dubbed the scariest jobs chart over.
The basic idea: All of the recessions are compared from their start date, with each line looking at the collapse in unemployment and subsequent recovery.
In almost all recoveries, the jobs situation has been v-shaped, with jobs coming back quickly once the recession ended.
That started to change with the 2001 recession: It took a long time for all the jobs to return.
And now we're in the worst jobs slump ever, with the recovery not looking very v-shaped at all.
[I][COLOR=#1d637d]Click here to enlarge...[/COLOR][/I]

[COLOR=#1d637d][IMG]http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/4ed8dd7b6bb3f7cf1000003b-629-417/chart.jpg[/IMG][/COLOR]



Read more: CHART OF THE DAY: THE SCARIEST JOBS CHART EVER[/COLOR]