It may seem obvious, with double-digit unemployment and plunging economic output. But if there was any remaining doubt that the U.S. is in a recession, it’s now been removed by the official scorekeepers at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
The bureau’s Business Cycle Dating Committee — the fat lady of economic opera — said the expansion peaked in February after a record 128 months, and we’ve been sliding into a pandemic-driven recession since.
In making the announcement, the committee pointed to the “unprecedented magnitude of the decline in employment and production, and its broad reach across the entire economy.”