But as the housing bubble burst and the financial crisis grew, industrial production slowed, retail sales weakened and employers cut jobs -- 533,000 American jobs were lost just in November, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since the start of the year, employers have shed 1.8 million jobs.
Earlier this month, the National Bureau of Economic Research declared that the country had been in recession since December 2007.
"One of the unique features of this downturn is how broad based it is, regionally," Mark Zandi, chief economist and co-founder of Moody's Economy.com told ABC News recently.
"In the past, in recessions, you saw people moving from areas that were hard hit to areas that were holding up better, looking for jobs and better incomes," he said. "Now there is nowhere to go."
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