US small businesses stuck in recession

Despite pronouncements that the recession ended two years ago, small-business owners see a very different reality, according to a recent 25-state survey.

Seventy-eight percent of nearly 3,000 small-business owners think the United States is still in a recession, according to the Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank, which released the survey Thursday.

Eighty-five percent of respondents also think the economy will still be stuck in a recession next year.

U.S. Bank said it increased small-business loans outstanding by more than 22 percent in 2010 over 2009, hired an additional 150 small-business specialists in key markets and is still hiring.

But overall lending to small business remains troubled. In a possible reflection of economic uncertainty, only 20 percent of survey respondents said they borrowed or tried to borrow money during the last six months. MinnPost

FACTS & FIGURES

Two consecutive quarters of decline in real GDP is commonly taken to be a recession. The National Bureau of Economic Research, a private organization, effectively decides when recessions occur, however, the actual dating process is determined by judgment rather than a formal rule.

According to a Gallup report released in April 2011, more than half of Americans (55%) describe the U.S. economy as being in a recession or depression, even as the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) reports that “the economic recovery is proceeding at a moderate pace.” Another 16% of Americans say the economy is “slowing down,” and 27% believe it is growing. Gallup

According to an NBC News poll conducted in May 2011, nearly 70 percent of respondents think the economy will get worse or stay the same in the next year. MSNBC

U.S. real unemployment rate in 2011 is almost twice what it was before the onset of the recession in 2007, and at the current pace, it looks as if it will take until late 2016 to make up for the net job loss to date of 7.5 million. U.S. News