The reality of the changes in consumer behavior

Consumer behavior has changed forever because of the recession and brands and companies are going to change the fundamental way in which they do business and how they think of their customers and prospects.  

Only 12.2% of economists surveyed by the Philadelphia Fed believe that the current backsliding will develop into a double-dip recession.  It used to take roughly six months for the U.S. to get back to a normal employment picture after a recession; the McKinsey Global Institute estimates it will take five years this time around.

That lingering unemployment cuts GDP growth by reducing consumer demand, which in turn makes it harder to create jobs. We would need to create 187,000 jobs a month, growing at a rate of 3.3%, to get to a healthy 5% unemployment rate by 2020. At the current rate of growth and job creation, we would maybe get halfway there by that time.