Jobless recovery

A jobless recovery is an economics term used when the economy has started to grow after reaching the bottom of a recession, but unemployment remains high and there is still either continuing net job loss or little net job creation. Historically, many recoveries in the United States have had increasing unemployment for several months after the first signs of positive GDP growth. However subsequently, some recoveries have followed a "V-shape" where employment growth picks up rapidly, whereas other recoveries have had slow employment growth.

In the Great Depression of the 1930s, unemployment remained stubbornly high even after most sectors of the economy had recovered. From 2001-2003, the economy lost jobs, even though there was no recession according to the traditional definition of two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

See also

• Unemployment
• Recession of 2008