The Recession River Is Wide

If we are in the bottom of the recession river, it is much wider than most folks thought it might be.  The recovery is taking longer that the economists thought and the unemployed hoped for.

We have shown you info from this report several times in the past year.  It comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and tracks the recovery from the current recession compared to the last 4 downturns.  Already they have stated that this is the worst recession since WWII in the 1940s and that it seems to be going on longer that the previous ones.  We like the comparisons since this gives us and you an overview of the trends, this might also give us an indication as to when we will be out of recovery mode and into the growth mode.  

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the current recession ended after 18 months but has been slower to recover than the previous ones.  The info shows that the unemployment at the beginning of the recession in December of 2007 was 5% and the unemployment rate at the end of June 2009 was 9.5% - still too high.  The report claims that the rate of unemployment was steeper than previous ones and that the recovery rate has been slower.  The information included does not cover the end of 2010 unemployment figures.  Also, those numbers do not reflect the jobless who have reached the end of their 99 weeks of unemployment and have stopped looking for work.  The next figures will be reported on the 7th of January and we will report them to you.

In the meantime, if you want to look deeper into the numbers, go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics web site.