Statement from EPI’s Research and Policy Director L. Josh Bivens:

“Today it was reported that the US economy grew at a 2.8 percent annualized rate in the third quarter of this year. This growth was too slow to rapidly bring down unemployment and restore the U.S. labor market to its full potential. Further, the growth in final demand – a more reliable measure of trends because it excludes volatile changes in private inventories – was much slower, growing at a 2.0 percent annualized rate for the quarter. What today’s report confirms is that the U.S. economy was weak going into the fiscal showdowns this fall – and these showdowns almost surely just weakened it further (which we’ll know for sure when the 4^th quarter GDP numbers are released in January).”