The global financial crisis, characterized by the collapse of the American housing market, is said to have come to an end in June 2009, making it the longest recession since the 1930s.
The National Bureau of Economic Research regards a recession as being over when an economy begins to recover, instead of when an economy is actually restored.
According to the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations, Lee County had an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent in August 2010.
That is lower than the 8.9 percent reported last year and the August national unemployment rate of 9.3 percent.
By NBER standards, those numbers suggest that, for Lee County, the recession is over.
However, industries affected by the housing market are still feeling the effects of the recession.
"The housing market is terrible," said Jordan Latimer of J L Remodeling & Home Repair of Auburn.
Latimer said construction has been hit particularly hard.
"The economy has been awful," Latimer said. "I've known guys in business for 30 years that have had to shut their doors."
On the other hand, Renee Winkler of Harper's Grocery, an interior design business in Opelika, said business has increased since June 2009, when the recession began to fade.
"We've managed to stay fairly busy," Winkler said.
Local businesses haven't been the only ones affected, however.
Twenty-five to 40 homes are in foreclosure around Lee County.
That computes to about one in every 3,468 houses.
Foreclosure rates in Lee County, however, are relatively low compared with other counties in the state.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau's most recent data, 510 new residential building permits have been issued so far this year in Lee County.
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