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MinnEcon Blog
Paul Tosto

I’ll believe the recession’s over when …

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We asked Minnesotans back in November to finish one of these sentences: I"ll believe the recession's over when... or I'm feeling a recovery right now because ...

The overwhelming response? People still curious to see what a recovery looked like.

Minnesotans in MPR's Public Insight Network continue to send us their views so we decided to give everyone another crack at it.

If you see signs of a recovery, tell us and share a little detail. If not, tell us what it'll take to convince you the recession's done.

"I'll believe the recession's over when my two oldest sons are working again," Diane Bjorklund of Maplewood wrote us earlier this week. "They are both carpenters and have been off work more than they have been on the last two years."

Click on the map icons to read what others have been telling us.

Click the little box on the upper right hand corner of the map to see it in full screen.

Most of the map icons are lightening bolts indicating responses of people who, like Bjorklund, are not convinced the recession's over.

Technically, it probably is over. But it's going to take job growth for many people to believe it.

We'll get the latest national unemployment data on Friday.

Minnesota's jobless rate held steady at 7.4 percent in in December. The latest Creighton University data on Minnesota "points to a state economy on the mend" but with "very modest" job gains.

What are you seeing?

Click here and finish one of those sentences. Or post a little something below.