Prometheus 6   

Recession Is Over; Jobs Aren't Trickling Down
By DANIEL ALTMAN

The recession that began in March 2001 ended eight months later, the National Bureau of Economic Research, an independent group that tracks the business cycle, concluded in a report released yesterday.

Cheers, if any, were faint.

Economists said the announcement was not a surprise, and politicians said it offered little comfort to the millions of Americans without jobs.

"We've declared victory over the recession, and we're still laying off a couple hundred thousand workers a month," said Representative Pete Stark of California, ranking Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee. "If it weren't so painful for so many people who are out of work, it would be hilarious. But it isn't. It's not funny."

Still, Representative Jim Saxton, Republican of New Jersey and vice chairman of the committee, in a statement called the economic research bureau's decision "a reasonable one."

The recession preceding the recent one lasted from July 1990 to March 1991 in the bureau's chronology. A year after it ended, the nation's economy embarked on six consecutive months of job growth. This time, 20 months after the recession's formal end, payrolls are still shrinking.

"Most households, most individuals, will really not believe that it is a recovery until we see that job growth as part of the picture," said Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Banc of America Capital Management. But she added, "The official declaration of the end should help confidence on the part of businesses, investors and consumers."