You have to check out this riveting interactive map that tracks vanishing employment across the country, updated with figures from August of this year, on Slate’s Web site. Using the Labor Department's local area unemployment stats, the map details when the economic crisis began striking each county and parish, showing Lafayette Parish losing 1,289 jobs since June 2008. According to Slate:
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.