The recession finally ended in August in one out of every five metro areas in the United States, especially in the Midwest and Great Plains, according to the latest Adversity Index from Moody's Economy.com and msnbc.com issued Thursday.

This is the first month this year when any metro area has moved from recession into the "recovery" category, indicating that the economy grew from six months earlier. Out of 384 metro areas in the nation, 79 are in recovery, according to the August data on jobs, manufacturing and housing. Another 270 areas have a "moderating recession," meaning their economies were not contracting as severely as earlier. That leaves 35 metro areas in a full-blown recession.

None of California’s 28 Metro areas were showing recovery.

"The initial recovery is going to be slow," said economist Andrew Gledhill of Moody's Economy.com. Jobs are still being lost, but in terms of manufacturing production, "the economy is finally beginning to emerge from the cellar." (Source: MSNBC, Moody’s)

Story Date: October 16, 2009