If you have not heard yet, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the great recession is officially over. This news may come as a surprise to the millions of Americans that are still struggling financially. Check out the following story from MSNBC.com on this new announcement.
NBER said Monday that the recession which began in December 2007 ended in June 2009, which marked the beginning of an expansion. The announcement rules out the possibility of a so-called “double-dip” recession, because any new downturn would be seen as a brand new recession.
President Barack Obama said that even though the NBER officially named an end to the recession, the economy has a long way to go and much work to be done to become healthy again. "Something that took ten years to create is going to take a little more time to solve," Obama said at a town-hall-style meeting shown live on CNBC.
The NBER said it chose the June 2009 date based on examination of data including gross domestic product, employment and personal income.
"The recession lasted 18 months, which makes it the longest of any recession since World War II. Previously the longest postwar recessions were those of 1973-75 and 1981-82, both of which lasted 16 months," the NBER added in a press release on its website.