Depends on what you mean by worst.

Post 9/11, the number of furloughs at one point hit over 10,000 pilots, which equated to a little over 10% of the pilot workforce. Some airlines (the old USair comes to mind) had 15% + of their pilots on the street, with dates of hire of furloughees going back to the late 80's, I believe.

The early 90's were a rough time. The early eighties were also extremely difficult, as well. One article I saw about that time period said it had the highest percentage of pilots on furlough in history.

I will say that this downturn is different. Post 9/11, there were a lot of low cost carriers and regionals that were hirring, even though the legacies were in deep trouble. Now there are very few airlines hirring, and no one is expanding at someone elses expense. But there are fewer furloughs (roughly half, I think) as there were post 9/11. At least as of right now. A lot more Regional pilots on the street than the industry is acustomed to.

So its bad - there are few jobs to be had, that's for sure. Is it the worst? Probably not. We'll have to see how it plays out to know for sure, though.