The level of full-time jobs for the five years between 2008 and 2012 has averaged about 114.2 million.
Peak full-time was 123.2 million in July 2007, so the average level is down from the 2007 peak by 9 million.
Average hourly earnings for all employees in the private sector for the period is about $22.60, or $47,008 per annum.
Times 9 million jobs that's $423.1 billion per year, or $2.12 trillion over the five years.
That's simply the payroll cost savings to American business, without adding in savings from no longer having to pay Social Security matching, unemployment insurance and workmen's compensation insurance premiums, and all the other benefits like health insurance, retirement and the like. The savings to business could easily have reached $2.5 trillion to date.
If you are wondering where business got the $1.2 trillion it has used for stock buybacks during the crisis, now you know.
