U.S. economists say recession is here

New York --A majority of economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal declared that the U.S. economy has fallen into a recession.

More than 70 percent of the 51 respondents of the March 7-11 survey said the economic indicators point to a recession, the Journal reported Friday.

Economists pointed to the loss of 63,000 jobs in February -- a total of 101,000 private sector jobs lost offset by 38,000 government jobs added -- and February's retail sales that showed a 0.6 percent decline.

Consumer spending makes up more than two-thirds of the country's economic activity.

Compared with a previous survey, the economists revised job growth expectations for the year from 48,000 jobs per month added to 9,000 a month. Twenty of the 51 said they expected payrolls to shrink in the coming months and unemployment to rise to 5.5 percent from a current 4.8 percent.

"The evidence (of a recession) is now beyond a reasonable doubt," Scott Anderson of Wells Fargo & Co., told the Journal

Technically, a recession is defined as two consecutive quarters with a drop in the gross domestic product. But, analysts said those conditions were arbitrary. "There might not be even one negative quarter in this recession," Steven Stanley of RBS Greenwich Capital said.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.