The Great Recession was a major economic shock in the US before 2020, causing job and home losses. The economy shrank a lot, but a slow recovery followed. It took years to fix the job market, but eventually, wages started to grow for workers. The period after the recession saw good wage growth, especially in the later years. Different groups of workers were affected in different ways during the recovery. The government used fiscal and monetary policies to respond to the recession. Lessons were learned for the future.