The U.S. Great Recession officially ran from December 2007 through June 2009, but the housing downturn and financial-market stress began earlier, and job losses continued after the recession ended. The timeline below separates those events and explains what they meant for workers, households, and the wider economy.
When did the Great Recession start and end?
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) chronology, as reported by Federal Reserve History and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), dates the U.S. recession from December 2007 to June 2009—18 months. Those dates mark the contraction in economic activity, not the full duration of the financial crisis or the recovery. Payroll employment kept falling after June 2009, and unemployment did not peak until October 2009.
What happened, and when? A timeline
- 2006: U.S. housing-market activity and residential construction peaked. During the preceding housing expansion, average home prices more than doubled between 1998 and 2006, while household mortgage debt rose from 61% of GDP in 1998 to 97% in 2006, according to Federal Reserve historian John Weinberg’s account (Federal Reserve History).
- 2007: U.S. home prices peaked early in the year. By August, strain in some financial markets was becoming visible as investors faced uncertainty about mortgage-related assets. The recession itself began in December.
- Spring 2008: Bear Stearns was acquired by JPMorgan Chase with Federal Reserve assistance, amid growing financial-market stress.
- September 2008: Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy; the next day, the Federal Reserve provided support to AIG. Financial stress intensified the economic contraction.
- November–December 2008: The Federal Reserve began large-scale asset purchases in November. By the end of December, it had lowered the federal funds target range to 0–0.25%. The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 was among the fiscal measures adopted.
- March 2009: Congress enacted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The Federal Reserve also announced additional purchases of longer-term Treasury securities.
- June 2009: The recession officially ended, according to the NBER chronology reported by Federal Reserve History and BLS. The economy and labor market remained weak.
- October 2009: The U.S. unemployment rate reached 10.0%, its peak in the recession-era period described by Federal Reserve History and BLS.
- 2010: The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act established major post-crisis changes to financial regulation.
What caused the 2008 financial crisis?
The crisis grew out of a housing boom and the financial risks built around it, rather than one isolated event. Federal Reserve History describes an extended expansion in homebuilding, home prices, and housing credit that accelerated in the mid-2000s. Lenders made subprime mortgages to higher-risk borrowers and loans were repackaged into securities held by financial institutions and investors.
When home prices fell, defaults and expected losses on mortgage-related assets increased. Uncertainty about who held those losses strained financial markets. The failure of major firms and stress at other institutions then helped turn financial turmoil into a severe contraction in economic activity.
Recommended Free Tools
#1 Best Overall
Analysts have disagreed about how much low interest rates contributed to the housing expansion. The historical account therefore does not support reducing the crisis to a single cause or policy decision.
How did the recession affect jobs and the economy?
Output and household wealth
The Federal Reserve History account published in 2013 reports that real GDP fell 4.3% from peak to trough during the 2007–09 recession. That figure reflects the historical data series used in the essay, not a new estimate for 2026. The same essay reports that average U.S. home prices fell approximately 30% from mid-2006 to mid-2009, the S&P 500 fell 57% from October 2007 to March 2009, and household and nonprofit net worth dropped from about $69 trillion in 2007 to $55 trillion in 2009.
Rank #2
- Ideal for Gifting
- Ideal for a bookworm
- Compact for travelling
Unemployment and job losses
Federal Reserve History and BLS report that the unemployment rate rose from 5.0% in December 2007 to 9.5% in June 2009, then climbed further to 10.0% in October 2009. The post-recession peak illustrates why the official end date should not be confused with a quick return to work.
BLS found that average monthly job losses reached 712,000 from October 2008 through March 2009, the most severe six-month period since 1945 in its analysis. Payroll employment continued to fall after June 2009 and reached a trough in February 2010. Long-term unemployment also remained particularly elevated.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteUneven effects across industries
The recession did not affect every sector in the same way. BLS reported construction and manufacturing employment declines of 13.7% and 10.0%, respectively, expressed as annual rates over the recession months. Employment grew in education and health services during the downturn.
What happened after the recession ended?
June 2009 marked the end of the recession in the official chronology, not the end of job losses, high unemployment, or financial repair. Payroll employment continued declining until February 2010, and unemployment reached its 10.0% peak four months after the recession ended. The recovery that followed was unusually slow by some measures, as Federal Reserve History’s John Weinberg notes.
Rank #4
The crisis also prompted a substantial policy response and changes to financial regulation. The Federal Reserve used liquidity and lending programs to support markets and institutions, rapidly cut interest rates, and began buying mortgage-backed securities and longer-term Treasury securities. Those asset purchases aimed to put downward pressure on longer-term rates and improve financial conditions; the chronology does not establish that any one intervention alone ended the recession.
Fiscal measures included the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 and ARRA in 2009, which combined spending and tax cuts. The available historical summaries do not quantify the separate causal effect of each measure. In 2010, Dodd-Frank established major post-crisis reforms to financial regulation.
The Tool Desk
Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Best Value
- It can be a gift option
- Comes with secure packaging
- Helpful in various ways
How should you read the dates and figures?
This timeline and its labor-market figures concern the United States. Other countries had their own recession dates and labor-market outcomes; the U.S. chronology should not be applied to them without country-specific evidence. The output, home-price, stock-market, and household-wealth figures above are those reported in a 2013 Federal Reserve History essay, while the employment analyses were published by BLS in 2011 and 2012. They describe historical estimates and analyses, not current readings of the economy.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
