WASHINGTON - It turns out the recession ended more than a year ago.

Feeling better now?

The panel that determines the timing of recessions concluded Monday that this one ended - technically, anyway - in June 2009, and lasted 18 months. The duration makes it the longest since World War II.

It may be over, but you won't be hearing any cheers from the millions of Americans who are struggling to find a job. Or are worried about the ones they have. Or have lost their homes. Or are behind on the mortgage.

"Every single one of the individuals who wrote the report needs a serious reality check," said Bob Johnson of the Queens borough of New York, who is 46, had worked in communications and has been looking for a job for more than three years.

Not that it's the fault of the academics - in this case the National Bureau of Economic Research, a group of economists based in Cambridge, Mass. It's their job to declare when recessions officially begin and end.

Their finding is one that economic historians spend a lot of time pondering. Politicians care, too. They don't want to be blamed for downturns that happen on their watch.

One of those politicians is President Barack Obama, who inherited the recession - it began in December 2007, according to the bureau. Obama found little reason Monday to celebrate that it had officially ended.

"The hole was so deep that a lot of people out there are still hurting," the president, whose Democratic Party faces a likely setback in the midterm elections, said at a town-hall meeting sponsored by CNBC.

Obama has made a point of noting small signs of progress in the economy, which is growing slowly. Some Democrats have urged him to stop boasting about any progress at all, for fear that it irks people who feel things aren't getting better and makes politicians seem out of touch.

For much of the country, the statistics are familiar and grim. Since the recession began, 7.3 million jobs have disappeared. Nearly 2.5 million homes have been repossessed. Unemployment is at 9.6 percent.