Merrill Lynch has said that Friday's employment figures confirmed that a recession had hit the nation, after the jobless rate hit 5 per cent in December.
However both Lehman Brothers and the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) disagree with the notion that the US is in the first month of such a major financial shift.
The NBER is charged with delivering an official ruling on whether this is indeed the case, making its judgement based on employment figures, personal income, industrial production and sales activity in the manufacturing and retail sectors. However this decision may not actually come about for two years.
