Recent revisions of government economic data show the recession as having been even deeper, and the recovery weaker, than previously estimated; indeed, by the second quarter of this year – the latest quarter for which official estimates are available – aggregate output in the United States still had not returned to the level that it had attained before the crisis.
Slow economic growth has in turn led to slow rates of increase in jobs and household incomes. The pattern of sluggish growth was particularly evident in the first half of this year, with real gross domestic product (GDP) estimated to have increased at an average annual rate of less than 1 percent. Some of this weakness can be attributed to temporary factors.