The chart above shows the effects of the 2008 recession on the soaring unemployment rates experienced in the Bronx, NYC and the nation at large, as well as the gradual economic recovery during the last year. Although the Bronx mostly mirrored economic trends taking place in the rest of the country, the borough felt far harsher effects at start of the economic downturn in 2008. In the span of one year between 2007 and 2008, the Bronx unemployment rate skyrocketed from 7.3 to 11.9 percent. That’s a more than 60 percent increase.