US 'may be in longest recession' since WWII

The US economy, now officially in recession, may be in the midst of the longest slump in the post-World War II era as job losses mount and credit dries up.

The economic slump began in December 2007 when payrolls reached a peak, the business cycle dating committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private, nonprofit group of economists based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said. The last time the US was in a recession was from March through November 2001, according to NBER.

"We're going on 12 months already, and we're just getting started," said Stephen Stanley, chief US economist at RBS Greenwich Capital in Greenwich, Connecticut. 'We're looking at some pretty severe numbers for the fourth quarter, and the first quarter of 2009 will be pretty bad as well. The economy isn't going to turn around definitively until the credit markets unclog."