Chris Wilson of Slate.com is asking When Did Your Country’s Jobs Dissapear?

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.

Check out the Slate.com Interactive Job Vaporization Map by click here.

Had you showed us this map without telling us what it was, we would swear it was a swine flu outbreak.