3 Months Of Hell: U.S. Economy Drops 32.9% In Worst GDP Report Ever
Updated at 9:32 a.m. ET The coronavirus pandemic triggered the sharpest economic contraction in modern American history, the Commerce Department reported Thursday . Gross domestic product — the broadest measure of economic activity — shrank at an annual rate of 32.9% in the second quarter as restaurants and retailers closed their doors in a desperate effort to slow the spread of the virus, which has killed more than 150,000 people in the U.S. The economic shock in April, May and June was more than three times as sharp as the previous record — 10% in 1958 — and nearly four times the worst quarter during the Great Recession. "Horrific," said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Markit. "We've never seen anything quite like it." Another 1.43 million people filed for state unemployment last week, an increase of 12,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. It was the second week in a row of increased unemployment filings and shows that the economic pictu