Real gross domestic product, the output of goods and services produced by labor and property in the United States, increased at an annual rate of 4.0 percent in the second quarter, as the economic recovery gained momentum, according to the advance estimate released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis today.
In the first quarter, real GDP had decreased 2.1 percent (revised).
The upturn in the percent change in real GDP primarily reflected upturns in private inventory investment and in exports, an acceleration in personal consumption expenditures (PCE), an upturn in state and local government spending, an acceleration in nonresidential fixed investment, and an upturn in residential fixed investment that were partly offset by an acceleration in imports.
Meanwhile, private-sector hiring slowed down slightly in July but remained healthy and broad-based, according to data released today.
Employers added 218,000 private-sector jobs in July, down from 281,000 in June, Automatic Data Processing reported. This was the fourth straight month of job growth above 200,000.
“It feels to me like the job market is really humming,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, which prepares the report using ADP data. He said the economy was on track to create 3 million jobs this year.
A BizTimes report on July 21 had predicted that the pace of national economic recovery would pick up steam.