Gasoline Prices and the Unemployment Rate

A story in two pictures, covering January 1976 (the earliest year for which we have average inflation-adjusted monthly retail motor gasoline prices in the U.S.) through February 2012:

Now the exact same data, but this time, with the data for average inflation-adjusted monthly retail motor gasoline prices shifted two years forward in time (to the right):

ATTN: White House Staffer - guess what feature will be coming back to Political Calculations in the very near future?...

Data Sources

U.S. Energy Information Administration. Short-Term Energy Outlook - Real Energy Prices. [Excel spreadsheet]. Accessed 5 March 2012.

U.S. Department of Labor. Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey. Unemployment Rate - Civilian Labor Force - LNS14000000 [Database]. Accessed 5 March 2012.