“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,” writes Daniel Altman in today’s New York Times.

“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.’ “

“The decision to date the recession’s end in November 2001 was made by a committee of seven academic economists after a meeting in Cambridge, Mass., on Wednesday. It was also in November 2001 that the committee declared the recession to have begun eight months earlier. The announcements are typically made long after the business cycle turns up or down, to avoid mislabeling a short-term change as a definite high or low in the size of the economy.”

” ‘In retrospect, we could just as easily have made the call a few months ago,’ said Jeffrey A. Frankel, a professor at Harvard who is a member of the committee.”

“The 2001 recession is considered short and shallow relative to the nine others since World War II, which averaged 11 months.”

“In its report, the committee cited the real gross domestic product — the value of all goods and services in the economy, adjusted for changes in prices — as the primary indicator of a recovery.”

“Jobs have not followed growth, the committee wrote, because of increases in workers’ productivity. In fact, Ms. Reaser said, the unemployment rate is unlikely to fall until the economy expands at an annual rate of 3.5 percent or 4 percent, the sort of pace attained in only two quarters since the recovery supposedly began.”