The Annualized GDP rate has been at or below 2.5% for the last 5 quarters. Three quarters ago we were barely growing. And while the last two quarters have seen some increases in the rate of growth, we're still below 2.5% -- in other words, barely growing. As a result:
The unemployment rate -- while it's dropped a bit -- is still at very high levels. Put another way
The unemployment rate has been stuck between 9.4% and 9.8% for the last 9 months. And based on the 4-week moving average of initial unemployment clams:
We're not going to see a change anytime soon.
In other words, we're growing, but not enough to lower unemployment.
