Vaccinations and federal aid helped lift the U.S. economy out of its pandemic-induced hole this spring. The next test will be whether that momentum can continue as coronavirus cases rise, masks return and government help wanes.
Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic output, grew 1.6% in the second quarter of the year, the Commerce Department said Thursday, up from 1.5% in the first three months of 2021. On an annualized basis, second-quarter growth was 6.5%.
The growth, fueled by strong consumer spending and robust business investment, brought output, adjusted for inflation, back to its pre-pandemic level. That is a remarkable achievement, exactly a year after the economy’s worst quarterly contraction on record. After the last recession ended in 2009, GDP took two years to rebound fully.
But the second-quarter figure fell short of economists’ forecasts, and the recovery is far from complete. Output is significantly below where it would be had growth continued on its pre-pandemic path. Other economic measures remain deeply depressed, particularly for certain groups: The United States still has nearly 7 million fewer jobs than before the pandemic. The unemployment rate for Black workers in June was 9.2%.
