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When Did Your County's Jobs Disappear?An interactive map of vanishing employment across the country, updated with the latest figures.

By Chris WilsonUpdated Monday, Aug. 10, 2009, at 5:14 PM ET

The economic crisis, which has claimed more than 5 million jobs since the recession began, did not strike the entire country at once. A map of employment gains or losses by county tells the story of how those job losses first struck in the most vulnerable regions and then spread rapidly to the rest of the country. As early as August 2007, for example—several months before the recession officially began—jobs were already on the decline in southwest Florida; Orange County, Calif.; much of New Jersey; and Detroit, while other areas of the country remained on the uptick.

Using the Labor Department's local area unemployment statistics, Slate presents the recession as told by unemployment numbers for each county in America. Because the data are not seasonally adjusted for natural employment cycles throughout the year, the numbers you see show the change in the number of people employed compared with the same month in the previous year. Blue dots represent a net increase in jobs, while red dots indicate a decrease. The larger the dot, the greater the number of jobs gained or lost. Click the arrows or calendar at the bottom to see each month of data. Click the green play button to see an animation of the data.

Update, May 14, 2009: Added data for March 2009. (County-by-county data lag by several weeks.)

Update, Aug 10, 2009: Added data through June 2009.

Play with more interactive features from the Slate Group and the Washington Post.

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Chris Wilson is an associate editor at Slate in Washington, D.C. Follow him on Twitter.
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