As of the third quarter of 2024, the GDP of the U.S. grew by 2.8 percent from the second quarter of 2024. GDP, or gross domestic product, is effectively a count of the total goods and services produced in a country over a certain period of time. It is calculated by first adding together a country’s total consumer spending, government spending, investments and exports; and then deducting the country’s imports. The values in this statistic are the change in ‘constant price’ or ‘real’ GDP, which means this basic calculation is also adjusted to factor in the regular price changes measured by the U.S. inflation rate. Because of this adjustment, U.S. real annual GDP will differ from the U.S. 'nominal' annual GDP for all years except the baseline from which inflation is calculated. What is annualized GDP? The important thing to note about the growth rates in this statistic is that the values are annualized, meaning the U.S. economy has not actually contracted or grown by the percentage shown. For example, the fall of 29.9 percent in the second quarter of 2020 did not mean GDP is suddenly one third less than a year before. In fact, it means that if the decline seen during that quarter continued at the same rate for a full year, then GDP would decline by this amount. Annualized values can therefore exaggerate the effect of short-term economic shocks, as they only look at economic output during a limited period. This effect can be seen by comparing annualized quarterly growth rates with the annual GDP growth rates for each calendar year.

In 2023 the real gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States increased by 2.5 percent compared to 2022. This rate of annual growth indicates a return to economy normalcy after 2020 saw a dramatic decline in the GDP growth rate due to the the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and high growth in 2021.

What does GDP growth mean?

Essentially, the annual GDP of the U.S. is the monetary value of all goods and services produced within the country over a given year. On the surface, an increase in GDP therefore means that more goods and services have been produced between one period than another. In the case of annualized GDP, it is compared to the previous year. In 2023, for example, the U.S. GDP grew 2.5 percent compared to 2022.

Countries with highest GDP growth rate

Although the United States has by far the largest GDP of any country, it does not have the highest GDP growth, nor the highest GDP at purchasing power parity. In 2021, Libya had the highest growth in GDP, growing more than 177 percent compared to 2020. Furthermore, Luxembourg had the highest GDP per capita at purchasing power parity, a better measure of living standards than nominal or real GDP.

The unemployment rate in the Republic of Ireland was 3.9 percent in February 2025, compared with 3.9 percent in the previous month. Between 2000 and 2007, Ireland's unemployment rate was broadly stable, fluctuating between 3.9 and 5.4 percent. Following the global financial crisis, however, Ireland's unemployment rate increased dramatically, eventually peaking at 16.1 percent in early 2012. For the next eight years, unemployment gradually fell, eventually reaching pre-crisis levels in the late 2010s. This was, however, followed by an uptick in unemployment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which peaked at 7.6 percent in March 2021, before falling to pre-pandemic levels by February 2022. Risk and rewards of the Irish economic model After being quite hard hit by the global financial crisis of 2008, Ireland staged a strong recovery in the mid-2010s, and was frequently the EU's fastest growing economy between 2014 and 2022. This growth, was however, fueled in part by multinational companies, such as Apple, basing their European operations in the country. As of 2022, an adjusted measure of gross national income valued Ireland's economy at around 273 billion Euros, rather than the 506 billion Euros GDP figure. Ireland's close economic relationship with American tech companies also leaves it vulnerable to the political weather in the United States. It is currently unclear, for example, what the recent return to power of Donald Trump as President in early 2025 could mean for the Irish economy going forward. Ireland's labor market As of the third quarter of 2024, there were approximately 2.79 million people employed in the Republic of Ireland. Of these workers, 379,200 people worked in Ireland's human health and social work sector, the most of any industry at that time. Other sectors with high employment levels include wholesale and retail trade, at 323,500 people, and education, at 228,200 people. While unemployment still remains quite low, some indicators suggest a moderate loosening of the labor market. Job vacancies, are slightly down from their peak of 35,300 in Q2 2022, amounting to 28,900 in Q3 2024, while youth unemployment has begun to tick upwards, and was 11.9 percent in January 2025.