Are you employed?

I started flipping through the new issue of PDN while feeding the boys their lunch (I work from home most days, so I watch the three babies on the non-nanny days), and I noticed a little news note about unemployment.  On page ten, in the bottom corner, they mention that unemployment for photographers has grown to six percent, bringing it more inline with national unemployment figures.  

Of course, this doesn't really take into account all the self-employed photogs that have taken a huge hit in business.  I bet many of us freelancers are having trouble making enough to pay bills at the moment (I've lucky worked on turning this sinking ship around and am now on the financial upswing - keep your fingers crossed that it continues).  When a couple publications close down or scale back their budgets, the freelancer losses probably aren't tallied by the Bureau for Labor Statistics.  They weren't technically fired, since they were never an employee.  

I bet the industry is hurting just a little more than those numbers can convey.  All the lost business for the self-employed equals a lot more people with trouble paying mortgages and car payments.