CNN 2010-09-24

Weather and warrior 1. Those two things might not seem like they go together, but they will by the end of today's show. Hello, everyone. I'm Carl Azuz. Welcome to CNN Student News.

The National Bureau of Economic Research says the recession is over and that it ended in June of last year. The stock market was happy with this news. It hit a four-month high yesterday based on the announcement. That group that we mentioned, the National Bureau of Economic Research, is the only one that officially declares when a recession starts and finishes. One question: Why are they just announcing it now? The NBER usually takes a while to declare when recessions start and end. This one started in December '07; the group didn't announce that until a year later. They wait because they want to make sure that economic changes are going to last. Poppy Harlow is breaking down what goes into the decision. What do you have for us, Poppy?

Hi there, Carl. Well, yes, the recession officially over. That coming to us on Monday morning from the National Bureau of Economic Research. This is a group of economists 2, the only group that can say whether this country is in or out of a recession. They said that we fell into a recession in December 2007, and they say that recession ended in June 2009. That makes it officially 18 months long, the longest recession in this country since World War II. Actually, the longest recession since the Great Depression; that's why it is called the "Great Recession" now. They say that June 2009 is when this economy hit rock-bottom, and they saw recovery after that. They do everything from measure GDP in this country, to salaries, to income, to employment, to industrial production to gauge 3 whether or not we're out of a recession.Now, they did say the economy is sluggish 4, the recovery is sluggish since then. If they do say there is a double-dip, or another recession, that would be considered a new recession, not a continuation of this recession. But I'll say, a lot of people don't feel like we are out of a recession, and here's why. Take a look at these numbers: When the recession officially ended in June 2009, the unemployment rate in this country was 9.5 percent. It is now 9.6 percent, so the jobs picture hasn't gotten any better. And the housing picture hasn't gotten any better either. Take a look at these numbers. When you look at median home prices in 2007, when we fell into the recession, we were about $219,000. In 2009, when we came out of the recession, they were $172,000 or so, and now they are just mildly higher than that.So, you have still a housing crisis in this country, a jobs crisis as well. That's why many Americans don't feel like this recession is officially over. A lot more details to explain it all for everyone out there. You can check them out right here on CNN Money.com. Carl?