double dip recession

Hiring was stronger than expected in September, a rare piece of good news amid growing worries of a weakening U.S. economy.

Employers added 103,000 jobs in the month, the Labor Department reported Friday. And July and August were both revised higher, showing an additional gain of 99,000 jobs over the summer.

For the last several months, there have been widespread concerns about the economy falling back into recession.

And Friday's report was welcome news amid fear of a double-dip recession.

Cue the collective sigh of relief! A government report showed the job market fared better than expected in July.

Economists say the debt ceiling debate has already damaged the U.S. economy, and many worry that a deadlock could send the country hurdling into a double-dip recession.

Remember when market bears and some naysayer economists were shouting "Double-dip recession!" from the rooftops just last month after some tepid jobs data?

Pay them no mind.

Commentary: Lakshman Achuthan and Anirvan Banerji are, respectively, co-founder and chief operating officer and co-founder and chief research officer of ECRI, the Economic Cycle Research Institute.

The good news is that the much-feared double-dip recession is not going to happen.

Even if the economy avoids falling into a double-dip recession, the next year will probably feel like one anyway, a CNNMoney.com survey of economists showed.

Many companies are sitting on cash they hoarded during the recession. For some companies entertaining mergers, selling now maybe be a way to get the best price in case of a double-dip recession.

The chance of a national double-dip recession is hotly debated amid an increasing number of signs that the economic recovery is losing pace, but the risk is particularly troublesome on a local level.

Europe's debt crisis. Companies still not hiring. The Gulf oil spill. These are uncertain times to say the least.

But while you might think economists would be running for the hills and looking ahead to a so-called "double dip recession," that's not necessarily the case.

Most economists agree the Great Recession has been over for almost a year, and that the U.S. economy is not poised to fall into a "double dip" recession.