期刊名称：Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis - Regional Economist
出版年度：2015
出版社：Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
摘要：T ypically, deep recessions a re followed by rapid growth. However, since the second quarter of 2009, when the latest recession officially ended, rea l (infl at ion- adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) has increased at only a 2.3 percent annual rate. 1 Prior to the latest recession, the economy's long-term growth rate of real potential GDP was about 3 percent per year. 2 Thus, the cur- rent business expansion could not only be the wea kest on record—although that con- clusion will ultimately depend on its length and future growth—but it could signal a worr isome downshift in the economy's long- ter m growth rate of real potential GDP. A common refrain a mong many eco- nom ic pundits and ana lysts is that the bulk of the job gains during this recover y have been in "low-wage jobs," a term that is rarely defined . This essay will explicitly define "low-wage" jobs in order to assess the valid ity of this claim. (This essay will not delve into the numerous hypotheses that have been put forward to explain why the economy fell into a deep recession and why the current expansion's growth rate has been so anemic. Interested readers should refer to those ar ticles listed in the reference section.)
