The recessions show up a little more clearly in the following diagram, which shows the rate of growth of Real GNP; that is, the change from one year to the next divided by the Gross National Product in the earlier year.
The decrease in production in 1942-43, a result of the redirection of the economy to war production, is not officially recorded as a recession, as the term is used only for peacetime drops in production.
Postwar Recessions