That s exactly the opposite of what happened. the unemployment rate is a good news story. why did it happen? you know, about 6 trillion government funds hit the us economy right during the heart of the downturn. a lot of that came as direct payments directly to small businesses and to consumers, and that made a difference. that led to excess savings, that led to a sense of confidence in terms of spending patterns, and helped with hiring to get all those jobs back. in the eurozone, the labour market has also held up better than predicted. here was the projection of the eurozone unemployment rate one year ahead from a survey of professional forecasters, more than 8%. and here s the actual outcome for those dates, well below 8%, and actually at a record low of 6.4%. again, that translates into millions ofjobs not lost relative to expectations. and here in the uk, unemployment