I've been looking at employment totals for a view of what comes next.
If you recall, I sent the BLS stats a few days ago, here's a chartset
showing the effect of unemployment as displayed in total "survivors".

A while back, I expected a rout in total employment, but I hadn't
expected "IT" to take such a large toll in just over a year, ramping up
its effect over the last four months dramatically.

Remember from the BLS report there are 154MM people "employable" (over
16, under retirement age) in the roughly 300MM population of the USA.

Now, if Private Payrolls have fallen to just under 120MM, add 6MM or so
labeled "unemployed" = 126MM accounted for, leaving another 28MM
either employed by gov't of all levels or among the Missing In Action
from the stats entirely.

The middle chart is where the horror lies - we're seeing the steepest
drop in recorded history, the other graphs flesh out the ongoing story.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/5-8-09-employment-2.gif

Remember they've finally admitted to 6MM "Unemployed" - now read this
link, it states there are almost FOURTEEN MILLION known unemployed as of
April, 2009. The 6MM was the INCREASE in unemployed, not the total.
(Surprise! The Media is either lying or dumber'n dirt, appearances
would suggest both):

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/empsit_05082009.htm

Try 13.7MM x $40k/yr NOT earned, then let that picture form in the
consumer price index, the unemployment-check drag on the
eroding-tax-revenue world of tomorrow.

Try unemployement approaching 12% - find that ramp-up in the early 30s,
then see how long it took to recover from THAT trend. The unemployed
weren't dropped from the counts in those times, now we seasonally adjust
'til the news is improved enough to keep the masses from the gates of
the palaces (where unemployment isn't a problem - yet)...

Still gotta work hard to survive, so all this is just "info" to keep the
head squared away on its mount. Buy nuttin', stack what's needed as
high as you can pile it.