A Brief History of Recession Time, From Stefan Jovanovich
The first recession I remember was the one that came shortly after Dad had his first heart attack during Eisenhower's second term. Although it was relatively short, it was pretty severe. I remember several of my friends' fathers losing their jobs in the New York printing trade, which slumped badly and never really recovered.
There have been 7 more recessions since then (not counting the one which may or may not be officially happening now). The median decline in real GDP for the 8 slumps has been 1.91%; their average duration has been 10 1/2 months.
Aug.1957 - Apr. 1958 8 months -3.75%
Apr. 1960 - Feb. 1961 10 months -1.64%
Dec. 1969 - Nov. 1970 11 months -0.64%
Nov. 1973 - Mar 1975 16 months -3.10%
Jan 1980 - Jul 1980 6 months -2.18%
Jul 1981 - Nov 1982 16 months -2.87%
Jul 1990 - Mar 1991 8 months -1.26%
Mar 2001 - Nov 2001 8 months -0.17%