Through the Mists of Recession, Jobs Rise

I have a feeling I'm not the only American who frequently speaks about the nation's unemployment rates, the stimulus plan, and the dreaded "R" word, recession.  I even covered a story about unemployment rates at KOMU about 4 weeks ago.  Since then, the government has good news for the American people:

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/dec2009/db2009124_771110.htm

So, is it true that there will be fewer pictures like this?

http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/news_impact/2009/01/large_unemployment-line-outside.jpg

One thing I have learned taking a few business classes this semester and speaking with my politicians, many Americans are afraid to use the word "recession".  To some, a recession means harder times.  Times that will look more like the Great Depression.  On the contrary, other Americans say the country is without a doubt wading in recession.  However you describe the state of the economy, there's no denying certain facts.  Facts like unemployment rates skyrocketing.  After many months of an increasing unemployment rates, the numbers are finally seeming to stop or at least reverse.  According to the article above, people are now finding jobs.  This is a great article from the facts and figures side of things.  It's great to see that the jobless are now finding jobs, and this article does a great job providing those concrete and hard facts that can give Americans a (better) piece of mind knowing that finding jobs may be getting easier.

Still, I wonder if it's more than just the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act providing the jobs to the jobless.  Yes, I do believe this stimulus package is helping, but is it really helping America that much?  Last year when this stimulus package was announced, I had a very interesting conversation with a USPS mailman.  For more than an hour, he and I discussed the stimulus plan and the economy.  One thing I won't forget him speaking about was how he believed the stimulus package won't help matters.  He said if the government just waits, in due time the economy will work itself out of this bind and people will begin finding jobs.  Since then, I've debated that topic with myself.  Is that true?  Just as an accountant says in this article I found,  "it's going to get worse before it gets better."

Although the article does a great job giving statistics and showing figures, I wish it went into more detail about why people like the accountant feel this way.  Maybe it's true what the mailman said, or maybe it's completely wrong.  Maybe the only way to fix the economy is through this stimulus plan.  There's no easy answer, and there's no way to find out if the other answer would have worked out better or worse (not issuing the ARRA; the stimulus plan).  So, like anything else, choose a side.  But in the end, we should be grateful for the small things.  Like the fact unemployment rates are slowly declining.