On Thursday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pledged that the central bank is ready to slash interest rates again to prevent housing and credit problems from plunging the country into a recession. The Fed has cut its key lending rate three times since September, for a total reduction of 1 percentage point...
It's typical that unemployment and job losses continue to climb even after the recession formally comes to an end, as businesses respond to the downturn by cutting future spending plans.
In the most recent recession, the eight-month period in 2001, the unemployment rate was under 5 percent for the first six months of the economic slump...
But the year and a half that followed the recession seemed just as bad or worse to many Americans, as unemployment rose to 7.8 percent by mid-1992. That allowed Bill Clinton to defeat a sitting president, George H.W. Bush, as his campaign leadership kept reminding themselves "It's the economy, stupid."
read the CNN story
Good chart. Horrible article. The author lacks understanding of what a recession is. A recession is a 2-consecutive quarter decline in GDP growth. The US economy is far from being a solid healthy economy, but that does not mean it is in a recession. Unemployment is 5%, which is still consider full employment. Yes, the employment rate did increase 0.3%, but it could be an outlier in the long run picture. It is too early to tell. The economiy created a net gain of over 1 million jobs last year. Interest rates are near historically low levels.
There is the slump in the housing market, the sub-prime "crisis", falling dollar, and other things to be concerned about, but people should not be panicking.
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