Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Our spring member drive has ended, but it's not too late to give. You have the power to help fund the essential journalism that keeps us all informed. Help us close the gap on our spring fundraising goal! GIVE NOW

Economic Growth Picked Up Slightly In Third Quarter

A GM assembly line in Lansing, Mich.
Bill Pugliano
/
Getty Images
A GM assembly line in Lansing, Mich.

The U.S. economy grew at a 2 percent annual rate in the third quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis says.

That follows growth (at annual rates) of 1.3 percent in the second quarter and 2 percent in the first.

At 2 percent, the third-quarter estimate is a bit better than the 1.8 percent that economists were expecting, Bloomberg News says. But this is just the first of three estimates of third-quarter growth, and it's likely there will be revisions in coming months.

In 2011, GDP expanded at:

-- A scant 0.1 percent annual rate in the first quarter.

-- 2.5 percent in the second quarter.

-- 1.3 percent in the third.

-- 4.1 percent in the fourth.

The economy, of course, is the top issue in this year's presidential campaign. The last major economic news due before Election Day on Nov. 6 is the October employment report, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics is scheduled to release next Friday — Nov. 2 — at 8:30 a.m. ET.

The nation's official unemployment rate declined to 7.8 percent in September, BLS said earlier this month.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.