Is the Recession Over? by:Jason P. Jones

There are signs pointing to the beginning of the end of this recession

. This past week, tons of information is being released, indicating that the Obama Administration's stimulus package might already be working. The stimulus package and other government stimulus measures such as lowering key interest rates and buying up bad loans has also helped consumer sentiment.

Hopefully these positive moves will get the consumer back to the stores and help get the economy back to an expansion phase. The stock market started to regain much of its previous loses, the housing industry is showing a gimmer of hope with an increase in construction and sales, and most important consumer confidence has risen drastically.

The most dramatic recovery made is that of the stock market. After plummeting to just over 7,100 points, the Dow Jones industrial index rallied and now reached more than 8,000 points. This is highest level since February 10, 2009. This rise has been triggered by a positive news from Citigroup announcing of a first ever profit since the summer of 2007.

Since then the stock market never looked back and seems poised to lead the economic comeback as other stock indexes also rallied at around 4 percent this week. This has a ripple effect worldwide as European and Asian stock indexes also rose last week In Asia, Japan's Nikkei jumped to 8,719 points, while its European counterpart, Britain's FTSE 100 increased by 2.9 percent .

The other economic indicator is the positive developments in the housing industry. The cheaper cost of houses and the low mortgage rates, which are now below five percent has resulted in housing construction and home sales going up. The Commerce Department announced that in February 2009, house and apartment construction has gone up by 22.2 percent over the month of January.

Existing home sales had increase to 5.1 percent in February which is the highest increase ever in six years. In addition, sales of new homes had increase substantially by 4.1 percent. In some areas, the gain is very big such as in Fairfield, California where sales jumped by a whooping 226 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to the same quarter in 2007. The low mortgage rates has also spark an increase in home loan refinancing applications with the Mortgage Bankers Association reporting that its weekly application index climbed 3 percent last week.

The citizen's spending spree extended to general goods as the Commerce Department announced that the demand for manufactured goods had increase by 1.8 percent in February. This is the first increase ever in almost six months of continuous decline.

The only indicator that can be considered as a reminder that the recession may not be over is the labor sector where the number of unemployed continue to rise. It is now pegged at 669,000 and is estimated by experts to reach 10 percent of the population by year end. Almost every day large companies announced manpower cuts.

Last month, big corporations such as Caterpillar Inc. said it will lay off more than 2,400 personnel in the US, while cellphone maker Nokia will lay off 1,700 staff globally. This week, health care products distributor Cardinal Health Inc., announced that it will cut 1,300 workers off its payroll.

But despite this, the overall citizen's mindset is more on the positive side, if this is the case this may just be the start of the much anticipated economic recovery.

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