Already it is the longest. The nonprofit National Bureau of Economic Research, which determines when the U.S. economy slips into recession, says the downturn began in December 2007, 19 months ago. That makes it longer than the wrenching, 16-month recessions of 1973-75 and 1981-82.
The unemployment rate is approaching the peak seen in the 1981-82 recession and the scope of job losses is the worst since the 1948-49 recession. The decline in gross domestic product is the deepest since the 1957-58 downturn, and Americans haven't seen so much of their wealth evaporate since the Great Depression.
The NBER defines a recession as "a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months." Among the gauges the organization watches are GDP and employment, as well as income, sales and industrial output. Even if the current recession is, as many economists believe, at or near its end, it looks worse than its postwar predecessors.
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