The Associated Press analyzed nine economic recoveries since the Great Depression that lasted at least three years. By most measures, the recovery from the Great Recession of 2007-2009 is the weakest. The unemployment rate was 8.3 percent in July, 37 months after the recession ended in June 2009. Unemployment has never been as high this long after the end of a recession. Here is how unemployment rates compare, three years and one month after the end of the other recessions:
| 1948-1949 | 2.8 percent |
| 1953-1954 | 4.3 percent |
| 1960-1961 | 5.4 percent |
| 1969-1970 | 4.9 percent |
| 1973-1975 | 6.1 percent |
| 1981-1982 | 7.0 percent |
| 1990-1991 | 6.4 percent |
| 2001 | 5.4 percent |
| 2007-2009 | 8.3 percent |
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