Between December 2007 and June 2009 the United States experienced the most severe recession in the postwar period. The over 4 percent decline in gross domestic product (GDP) was only reversed more than three years after the beginning of the recession. During the worst part of the Great Recession, virtually every segment of the U.S. economy was adversely affected. Employment losses were severe, but also unevenly distributed: men, the young, and the less educated suffered disproportionately in the recession’s aftermath.
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