According to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), what has been dubbed the Great Recession officially began in December, 2007 and ended in June, 2009. During this recession, national output of goods and services fell from the second quarter of 2008 until the end of the recession in the second quarter of 2009, and then slowly began to increase. When the recession was officially declared as being over, the unemployment rate continued to rise, reaching 10 percent in October, 2009 and remained close to that level until April, 2010 when it slowly started to decline. During that 10-month period, the net loss in jobs in the U.S. economy was close to 1.4 million. How is it possible that output can rise while at the same time employment falls?