Stat o' the Day: 13.9 million

There are 13.9 million unemployed people in the United States.  Over at Real Time Economics, David Wessel puts that number into perspective (to chilling effect):

There are more unemployed than the combined populations of Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota, Alaska, South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, Idaho and the District of Columbia.

If they were a country, the 13.9 million unemployed Americans would be the 68^th largest country in the world, bigger than the population of Greece or Portugal (each of which has 10.8 million people) and more than twice the population of Norway (4.7 million.)

A sad, scary data point to be sure.

Source:

The United States of Unemployment (Real Time Economics)

hat tip CJ the Bond Wimp