Residential Investment and Unemployment

I thought it might be worth taking a look at residential investment and unemployment over a longer period. I'm surprised at how tight the (inverse, lagged) relationship turned out to be. Every time residential investment took a nosedive, unemployment shot up quickly thereafter. Every time residential investment increased rapidly, unemployment dropped precipitously.

Here's the chart:

RI % GDP and Unemployment 1970-2009

Here are the peaks and valleys and the lag between them:

Peaks Valleys

I should note that prior to 1970, the relationship wasn't quite the mirror image you are seeing here. However, I think 40 years worth of data of this quality is sufficient to make the conclusions I am making. We shouldn't expect a dramatic drop in unemployment until we see a dramatic rise in residential investment.