How does the BLS determine if we have a depression and not a recession?

Question

Does the BLS have a specific number they look for when determining a depression.

Answer 1

The BLS doesn't. Usually a depression is defined as a combination of recession and deflation (falling prices) -- with "recession" usually defined as two straight quarters of negative GDP growth.

The BLS does issue one of those numbers -- the CPI, which would indicate deflation.

But it's the BEA (Bureau of Economic Analysis) that issues the GDP report. So you'd need to look at info from both the agencies, to see if if the situation exists that GDP is down for 6 months and at the same time the CPI is declining -- then you could call it a depression.