Recession is officially over, small businesses still struggle

Stocks surged on Monday, following an announcement from the National Bureau for Economic Research that the recession has been over since June of 2009.

You can be forgiven if this comes as news to you ? it’s come as news to many people, not least the small business owners who’ve been struggling to survive in an economy where credit is tight, health care costs are high, and consumers and investors remain skittish.

Is this a turning point? Will this announcement spur the confidence our economy needs to get over the slump? Louise Story, of The New York Times, says there are a number of reasons why it still feels like we’re in a recession, no matter what the numbers say. Paul Mucci, who runs a small business called Aerial Spectrum, and Marva Allen, co-owner of Hue-Man Bookstore in Harlem, agree.