Are the employment numbers good or bad?

There seems to be a lot of different charts going around out there.

Justin Fox points out that we're officially worse than the 81' recession. His is a measure of the change in employment starting from the peak employment level. But, does peak employment really mean anything?

Mark Perry says that we're nowhere near as bad as the 70s and 80s. He has graphs of initial and continuing jobless claims as a percentage of the labor force.

Calculated Risk weighs in. Free Exchange reminds us that this data isn't inconsistent with good economic indicators elsewhere. The Minneapolis Fed gives us interactive charts.