“That gave us the definitive picture of what happened in 2009,” said Robert J. Gordon, a member of the committee for over 30 years and an economics professor at Northwestern. “At this point we’re not going to get any new information to consider until July 2011. So we knew that if we’re going to do anything, we should probably do something now.”

Professor Gordon also said that nearly every indicator that the committee looks at simultaneously reached its low point in June 2009, which made that month a relatively easy selection as the official turning point. The main exception to this trend was employment, which hit its trough six months later, in December 2009. (Link here )