Even before the December 2007 recession began, job growth was positive but was the slowest it’s been in many decades. And you’re right, no one had been talking about it (I think most people don’t stop to run the numbers).

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard & Poor’s 500 stock indexes are up 30% from their trough of March 4, 2009, BUT their values (and the wealth that stock ownership brings) are as low as 1999 levels. The Nasdaq technology stock index has increased 50% since the March 4, 2009, trough, but the index level today remains 30% BELOW August 1999 levels (and 60% below the its peak of March 2000). Home values in many parts of the country are also back to 1999 levels, wiping out a lot of wealth people thought they had.

Despite the talk out there of an end to the recession, the California economy (world’s 7th largest) is taking new hits in the form of government employee furloughs, rising commercial vacancy rates and foreclosures. It could be that the rest of the country can get along without us, but we will definitely be a drag on the U.S. economy for a while.

Self employment is a great way to soften the blow of being laid off. I must say, however, a few aspiring entrepreneurs I work with do not want to launch as long as they are receiving unemployment benefits. Many are looking for work and would prefer to have a job, but find they are forced to look to self-employed as an alternative.

I talk to many people who would prefer the “security” of a job to being self-employed. But with an economy that has been performing as poorly as ours has, I think the “safest” route is to make your own job by keeping your skills up and keeping an eye out for what the marketplace needs. That said, I’d bet my last dollar that once payroll employment beings growing again — about three from now — many of the budding entrepreneurs out there will throw in the towel and get a job.