U.S. not in a recession, Wolfers tells WDIV

October 23, 2022 WDIV

Justin Wolfers, WDIV: "One level more complicated, and another level much simpler. Which is, as of right now, the U.S. economy is not in a recession. Last time we talked, the U.S. economy wasn't in a recession, and the U.S. economy hasn't been in recession all through 2022. And it's that simple and it's that simple because there's an array of data, particularly employment data, showing that the economy is continuing to grow. In fact, the number of jobs we added over the past three months, the rate of job growth was higher than at any point during the pre-pandemic 2000s. So what's happened is, the economy is like a big rubber band - stretched out, and bounced back. And we start to get used to these outrageously strong growth numbers. But what we're seeing is a little bit slower. So there are some indicators looking a little worse, GDP is one of them. There are a bunch looking a lot better, but overall the economy has been growing, is growing, and therefore we're not in recession."