Graph the behavior of the civilian unemployment rate from 1961 until the present using monthly data. Can you see the periods of recession that occurred in 1969–1970, 1973–1975, 1980, 1981–1982, 1990–1991, and 2001? In terms of the unemployment rate, how does the 2007–2009 recession compare in severity with those earlier downturns? How does the behavior of the unemployment rate over the 2000s and 2010s compare to its behavior in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s?