On my regular blog Caffeine Security, you'll frequently see me leveraging Google tools to do some pretty amazing things.
Today I'm going to leverage one of these same tools, Google Insights, and produce some very eye opening data using the following search terms: file unemployment, laid off, lost job, and apply for food stamps.
I've heard people say over the past few years that the economy is getting better. I've heard that unemployment is getting better.
Unfortunately Google Insights doesn't agree. It shows an increase in search volume by people in need since mid-2008. A sharp spike occurred in January of 2009, and most searches have remained high ever since.
Below is an embedded Google Insights chart of several Google searches which have been rising over the past few years.
You can tell these search terms are related, since there are spikes in activity at the same time.
If you'd like to view the full Google Insights results and modify it to your own searches, please visit this link.
