Basically, the recession is considered to be a common deceleration in the economic movements of any nation, for a specific time period. It could also be referred as a retrenchment in the business cycle of a nation. There is a variation found in the macro-economic indicators of any country, during the recession. The production, utilization capacity, profits of businesses, employment level, income of households and investment spending falls during the recession. Governments of most nations usually try to deal with the recession by espousing the developmental macro-economic policies. These policies are augmenting the spending of government, escalating the supply of money and lessening the taxation on their citizens.

Julius Shiskin, an economic statician, has suggested various indicators which can help in recognizing the recession. He stated that if there is a quarterly reduction in the   Gross Domestic Product of any nation for two times in a row, then it should be deemed to be an indication of the recession. However, this rule is now forgotten my most of the economists. Nowadays, the fall in the Gross Domestic Product of any country is treated as the indicator of recession. Many economists believe that if there is a 1.5 percent rise in the joblessness level in a period of twelve months, then it should be regarded as the inception of recession.

The National Bureau of Economic Research is the committee in the United States that normally handles the recessions bothering the economy of the United States. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research the recession is a condition in which an outsized decline is noted in the economic commotion of any nation, which stays for more than few months. The effects of recession are basically visible in the growth of the real Gross Domestic Product, employment, wholesale/ retail prices, industrial fabrication, real personal income etc. This definition framed by the National Bureau of Economic Research is referred by most of the economists, academics, business houses and policy makers, across the globe. This definition is very helpful to understand the recession length i.e. its start and conclusion.

If the recession length is three to four years long, then it is stated to be an economic depression. However, this economic depression is not easy to cure. The average recession length is of twelve to fifteen months. There are many reasons for the length of recessions to get extended such as the crisis in currency, crisis in energy, war, low consumption, more production and financial disaster. If the recession length is quite extensive then it would result into bankruptcies, deflation, unemployment, foreclosures and credit crisis.