- January 1, 2013
- High Road Strategy Center (formerly COWS)
- Staff Report
The 2007 recession, the Great Recession, is now six years behind us. But the aftermath is still painfully evident throughout the nation. For those still struggling to find a decent job, for those who can’t secure the hours they need to make ends meet, for those who have watched their resources and meager unemployment benefits run out, the Great Recession has never really ended. On paper, and as proclaimed by the committee of experts who decide this, the recovery began nearly four years ago. But it is such an anemic and jobless affair that while market and balance sheets have
improved, too few jobs have been added. In Wisconsin, the recovery has proved even more meager. Yes, we have more jobs today than at the pit of the recession. Still, we remain behind the number of jobs we had in 2007 before the recession began. To put this in perspective, none of the recessions that current workers have lived through – not the 2001 recession, nor the softer 1991
recession, nor the brutal double dip recession of the early 1980s – produced so little job growth this far into recovery. We are still waiting for enough economic dynamism and growth to get back just to where we started.