The amount of economic activity in the United States has fluctuated widely over the past decade. As the business cycle ebbs and flows, many economic variables are affected, such as employment and interest rates.

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the recession of 2001 was followed by a period of long economic expansion, which ended in December 2007 with the present economic downturn. 

Typically during recessions people lose their jobs. The national unemployment rate has reflected these changes in the business cycle, fluctuating from 4.3 percent in March 2001 to 6.3 percent in June 2003, declining again to 5.0 percent in December 2007, and then rising to 10.0 percent in December 2009 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010).