deficit increased significantly. Another recession—the most recent one to date—came at the beginning of the 1990s as the result of a major stock collapse in October 1987, referred to now as Black Monday. Although the collapse was larger than the one in 1929, the global economy recovered quickly, but North America still suffered a decline in lumbering savings and loans, which led to a crisis. The recession was not limited to the United States, but it also affected partnering nations such as Australia. The unemployment level increased to 10.8%, employment declined by 3.4% and the GDP also decreased as much as 1.7%. Inflation, however, was successfully reduced. Australia faced recession in 2020 due to the impact of huge bush fires and the COVID-19 pandemic's effect on tourism and other important aspects of the economy. European Union The Eurozone experienced a recession in 2012: the economies of the 17-nation region failed to grow during any quarter of the 2012 calendar year. The recession deepened during the final quarter of the year, with the French, German and Italian economies all affected. United Kingdom The most recent recession to affect the United Kingdom was the 2020 recession attributed to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the first recession since the Great Recession. United States According to economists, since 1854, the U.S. has encountered 32 cycles of expansions and contractions, with an average of 17 months of contraction and 38 months of expansion. From 1980 to 2018 there were only eight periods of negative economic growth over one fiscal quarter or more, and four periods considered recessions: July 1981 – November 1982: 15 months July 1990 – March 1991: 8 months March 2001 – November 2001: 8 months December 2007 – June 2009: 18 months For the last three of these recessions, the NBER decision has approximately conformed with the definition involving two consecutive quarters of decline. While the 2001 recession did not involve two consecutive quarters of decline, it was preceded by two quarters of alternating decline and weak growth. Since then, the NBER has also declared a 2-month COVID-19 recession for February 2020 – April 2020. In July 2022, the NBER released a statement regarding declaring a recession following a second consecutive quarter of shrinking GDP, "There is no fixed rule about what measures contribute information to the process or how they are weighted in our decisions". NBER has sometimes declared a recession before