Mark W Olson: Update on the US economy Remarks by Mr Mark W Olson, Member of the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve System, at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, Arkansas, 13 April 2006. *  *  *  Recent trends in the U.S. economy have been, on the whole, quite favorable.
Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased 3-1/4 percent during 2005, on the heels of two years during which it rose at an annual rate of almost 4 percent. By the end of last year, businesses had added another 2 million jobs to their payrolls, and the unemployment rate had dropped to its lowest level in five years.