Did you hear the one about the end of the recession...?

On paper at least, it’s been a red- letter week to revel in the revitalization of the economy of the United States and of the Mahoning Valley.

Just consider:

The unemployment rate in the Youngstown metropolitan area dropped markedly in August. According to an Ohio Department of Job and Family Services report released Tuesday, the combined unemployment rate for Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties fell to 11.3 percent in August, down from 11.9 percent in July and from 13 percent in August 2009.

The National Bureau of Economic Research, a panel of academic economists, declared the country’s worst post-World War II economic recession actually had ended 15 months ago, sooner than most of us would ever have imagined.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones gauge of economic health has risen 7.5 percent so far this September, an unusually large gain for a month that is historically weak for stocks.

Yet despite such optimism from Columbus, Washington and New York, on Main Street Mahoning Valley, it’s not time to uncork the champagne bottles just yet.

Just ask any of the 30,600 individuals in the Youngstown-Warren metro area officially counted as unemployed last month. (The unofficial number is much higher). This week’s flurry of optimistic news will do little to better their lots or relieve the frustration and pain of 15 million other jobless Americans. To them, news of a reinvigorated economy is little more than a sick joke.

For all Americans, it is certainly no time to be lulled into bogus optimism. The recession may be officially over, but its unofficial and devastating impact continues to wreak havoc on countless Americans’ lives.

US NEEDS ACTION, NOT BLATHER

To lessen that impact, a rededication to action — not partisan sniping — to revive the economy must take shape on the national, state and local levels.

Toward that end, last week’s Senate passage of a measure to give small businesses across the U.S. some $12 billion in tax cuts should reap quick and positive dividends.

A special salute must go to retiring Republican U.S. Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio who provided the breakthrough vote needed to end a months-long stalemate and filibuster on the measure.

Such compromise and conciliation, however, have been the exception, not the rule, in Columbus and Washington. And as the campaign season heats up, the potential for caustic rhetoric and inaction intensifies as well.

In the Valley, regional development agencies working in concert with local governments must not loosen the bonds they’ve developed in recent months and years. Those partnerships have reaped tangible progress and some large-scale job growth in our region.

A concerted multi-pronged attack on the remnants of recession must not let up. If raucous political rants take a back seat to responsible job-creating actions, perhaps in a year or two or five from now, we can witness a return to full employment in this nation and in this Valley.

Until then, we’ll keep those champagne bottles chilled, but tightly corked.