The Current Economic Recovery in Perspective

The charts above show how the current economic expansion compares to the last two expansions (following the 1990-1991 and 2001 recessions) in terms of: a) employment (nonfarm payroll) recovery (top chart), and b) output (real GDP) recovery (bottom chart), from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve website (updated through May for employment).  Note that:

1. For employment (top chart), the job gains during the current expansion (red line) are actually quite a bit better 23 months into the expansion than in the comparable period following the 2001 recession (green line), and a bit worse than the job gains following the 1990-1991 recession (yellow line). 

2. The recovery in real output (bottom chart) seven quarters into the current recovery (red line) is about exactly the same as the output recovery following the last two recessions.

 With the interactive charts at the Minneapolis Fed website, you can add more post-recession periods and see the big difference between the much faster and stronger recoveries in the 1950-1980 period than the sluggish recoveries ("jobless recoveries") following the last three recessions (see chart below).   But for the post-1990 period, the current economic recovery seems pretty average, at least in terms of gains in employment and output at 23 months (7 quarters) since the end of the recession.