NBER: Recession ended in June 2009

IT'S OFFICIAL: The Great Recession ended in June 2009 according to the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The longest recession the country has endured since the Great Depression ended in June 2009, a group that dates the beginning and end of recessions declared Monday.

The National Bureau of Economic Research, a panel of academic economists based in Cambridge, Mass., said the recession lasted 18 months. It started in December 2007 and ended in June 2009. Previously the longest post World War II downturns were those in 1973-1975 and in 1981-1982. Both of those lasted 16 months.