Aug. 23--The recession is over. Let the good times roll.

Well, let's hold on a minute.

Even if the recession is over, as many experts are saying, you might not notice it for quite awhile.

"If you ask a professional economist if it's over, the odds are they will say yes," said John Godfrey, a professional economist who is president of Florida Economic Associates in Jacksonville.

"Whether it feels better out there is open for debate," he said.

Consider this: Jacksonville area businesses had 588,600 employees on their payrolls in July, the month that many analysts say the recession ended. But that's down by more than 50,000 jobs since employment in the area peaked at 639,000 in May 2007. It's going to take a long time to get those jobs back.

"In the U.S., we've lost 6.7 million jobs since December 2007. Knowing that huge number, it is hard for many people to grasp that the recession is over," said Tyra Tutor, senior vice president of corporate development at MPS Group Inc., a Jacksonville-based professional placement firm.

"People may read that the recession is over and the economists are right from a technical point of view," said Frederick Schultz, former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

"What most people are going to continue to find is unemployment is high and may continue to go higher," he said.

In general, unemployment always rises after a recession is technically over. That's because businesses are reluctant to hire workers until they are sure that the economy is in good shape. And as long as people are worried about finding a job or whether they will be able to keep their current job, it will still feel like a recession to most people.

The last recession ended in November 2001, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the organization that is considered the official arbiter of when recessions begin and end. But Jacksonville-area jobs didn't start growing again until June 2003.

Local jobs continued to grow until December 2007, which is also the month when the most recent recession began, according to the NBER. The total number of jobs on Jacksonville business payrolls in December 2007 was 1,200 less than it was in December 2006. The number has been declining on a year-over-year basis ever since, and it may be awhile before growth resumes.

"People are already talking about this being a non-employment recovery," said University of North Florida economist Paul Mason.

"Hopefully in 2011, 2012 the unemployment rate will get back down to where it was," he said.