The National Bureau of Economic Research officially announced Friday the United States has been experiencing an economic recession since December 2007.
UW-Madison associate professor of public affairs Donald Moynihan said the announcement only confirms what the public already realizes about the state of the economy.
According to Moynihan, the announcement from the bureau took a year because it takes time to gather all the data that officially signifies a recession, including growing unemployment and at least two successive quarters of negative economic growth.
By the time we get the official recognition, we are already pretty well aware of the state of the economy,"" Moynihan said.
As to how the recession has been seen in Wisconsin, Moynihan said the state has experienced a large loss of manufacturing jobs. He said Wisconsin is not among the states feeling the worst of the recession, but is far from being one of the states faring the best.
UW-Madison assistant professor of consumer science J. Michael Collins said Wisconsin is a ""mixed story."" Although the state has not had the same housing slump or amount of job losses as other states, such as California, there have been large layoffs.
Collins said he expects unemployment to continue to increase in Wisconsin into 2009.
According to Collins, there is no way to forecast when the recession will end for the state or country, and it is possible the announcement of the recession from the National Bureau of Economic Research will negatively affect consumer sentiment and make things worse in the near future.
""People, while they might have known the economy is on a downturn, may have been uncertain as to how much so,"" Collins said. ""With the official announcement, people might be less likely to start businesses or take other risks that would work to help us out of the recession.
