The U.S. economy grew at a 3% annual rate in the second quarter, in line with economists' expectations, according to new data from the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Economists polled by LSEG projected an annual growth rate of 3% in the second quarter after the second advance read came in at 2.8% in July.
The report also revised first-quarter GDP growth to 1.6%, up from 1.4% in the prior reading. That comes after the economy grew 3.4% in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Stronger growth in the second quarter compared to the first quarter was primarily due to an acceleration in consumer spending and an increase in business investment, offset by a downturn in residential investment.
The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3% in the second quarter, the Commerce Department announced. (Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of GDP, was up 2.8% in the second quarter, higher than the 1.9% reading in the first quarter, amid an uptick in spending on goods.
Business investment rose 8.3% in the second quarter, led by nonresidential investment — particularly on equipment — while residential investment declined 2.8%.
The report showed increases in personal income that were revised upward from the previous estimate. Current-dollar personal income was up $315.7 billion, revised up $82.1 billion from the prior estimate. Disposable personal income was up by $260.4 billion, or 5%, in the second quarter — an upward revision of $77.3 billion from the prior estimate.
Personal saving was $1.13 trillion in the second quarter, an upward revision of $74.3 billion from the prior estimate, while the personal saving rate was 5.2% — down slightly from 5.4% in the revised first quarter reading.
The gap between GDP and gross domestic income (GDI), which measures the sum of incomes earned and costs incurred in the production of GDP, narrowed in the second quarter. The two measurements are conceptually equal, but in practice, they differ because of using different source data. GDI increased 3.4% in the second quarter after an upward revision of 2.1 percentage points from the prior estimate.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell announced the first interest rate cut in four years last week amid progress in the fight against inflation. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Michael Pearce, deputy chief economist at Oxford Economics, said the GDP revisions show the U.S. economy's recovery is "built on strong foundations."
"The revisions only strengthen our conviction that the U.S. economy will continue to expand at a decent pace over the coming year, which suggests labor market conditions are unlikely to deteriorate markedly from here," Pearce said. "We think that will push Fed officials toward a more gradual series of interest rate cuts in the quarters ahead."
The Federal Reserve announced the first interest rate cuts in four years after its policy meeting last week, lowering the benchmark federal funds rate to a range of 4.75% to 5%.
One-third of new hires have experienced poor onboarding experiences, with remote and hybrid teams struggling more than their in-office colleagues when starting a new job, according to a survey by onboarding and engagement platform Enboarder.
The survey, which polled more than 1,000 employees in the US, UK and Australia, found that one-in-three respondents started looking for another job based on their sub-par onboarding experience. A quarter of respondents actually left their positions, while an equal proportion shared their negative experiences with others, it added.
As companies continue to grapple with maintaining morale and engagement in the new world of work, only 26% of employees said they felt fully informed, engaged and confident during their most recent onboarding.
“Leaving onboarding to chance is a huge risk considering the massive investment companies make when it comes to recruitment,” Dan Finnigan, CEO at Enboarder, said in a press release on 25 September.
Remote new hires are the most likely to have had a truly terrible onboarding experience, cited by 42% of the participants, followed by hybrid workers at 39%, according to the survey.
New hires working remotely are nearly 50% more likely to say company culture was demonstrated poorly or not at all compared to their peers working on-site. Meanwhile, field workers are more than twice as likely to feel they were not fully informed, engaged and confident during their onboarding process compared to their office-based colleagues.
Human connection and communications remain key differentiators for onboarding in a tight labour market, Enboarder said in the statement.
For respondents with positive onboarding experiences, 42% said they felt more engaged, 46% were satisfied with their job decision and 34% were motivated to stay longer at the company.
However, the survey found that many companies were fuelling dissatisfaction, turnover and performance challenges by not modernising their onboarding processes. In terms of a terrible onboarding experience, 34% of respondents said they felt disengaged, 33% regretted accepting the role and 30% had a negative outlook on the work environment.
“This report clearly shows the experiences we have when we start a new job have a huge impact on employer brand, employee experience and performance,” Finnigan said. “The fact is most onboarding programmes are falling short — and it’s negatively impacting the bottom line.”
More employers in the UK plan to include salary ranges in job postings, joining a broader global push to boost pay transparency.
Some 48% of businesses said they will include pay data in listings in the next two years, up from 17% right now, according to a survey by Mercer Inc. The consulting firm received responses from 98 companies, which collectively have more than 1.5 million employees in the UK.
“It seems like a really positive thing for employers to be doing,” said Lucy Brown, a DEI and pay equity consulting leader at Mercer. “Employees who say they’re fairly paid are twice as likely to say they understand why they’re paid what they’re paid.”
Pay transparency is gaining momentum in many parts of the world. And it’s coming at a time when labor markets are tight in several regions, putting more pressure on companies to provide salary data to lure talent.
More than half of the companies surveyed say they’re motivated by compliance requirements in other regions; the UK doesn’t have any. The EU Pay Transparency Directive means that most companies in the bloc will have to post salary ranges starting in June 2026. Several US states, including New York and California, have already introduced pay data requirements.
The majority of companies also plan to have a global strategy on pay rather than deferring to local rules, the survey shows, suggesting that other factors ,— including hiring and retention — remain problems amid a tight labor market.
Fair pay is becoming more important to employees, according to Mercer’s 2024 Global Talent Trends report, ranking as the second-most cited reason for staying at a firm — up from fourth in 2022.
That same report said that employees who change jobs often receive an average pay increase of 16% compared to a 5.6% bump for those who are remain at their jobs. There’s another reason to default to transparency: Like millennials, Gen Z employees are more likely to talk about pay than previous generations.
Pay transparency has also been shown to reduce the gender pay gap, according to a 2022 paper in Nature Human Behaviour, but the impact depends on how it’s implemented.
More employers in the UK plan to include salary ranges in job postings, joining a broader global push to boost pay transparency.
Some 48% of businesses said they will include pay data in listings in the next two years, up from 17% right now, according to a survey by Mercer Inc. The consulting firm received responses from 98 companies, which collectively have more than 1.5 million employees in the UK.
“It seems like a really positive thing for employers to be doing,” said Lucy Brown, a DEI and pay equity consulting leader at Mercer. “Employees who say they’re fairly paid are twice as likely to say they understand why they’re paid what they’re paid.”
Pay transparency is gaining momentum in many parts of the world. And it’s coming at a time when labor markets are tight in several regions, putting more pressure on companies to provide salary data to lure talent.
More than half of the companies surveyed say they’re motivated by compliance requirements in other regions; the UK doesn’t have any. The EU Pay Transparency Directive means that most companies in the bloc will have to post salary ranges starting in June 2026. Several US states, including New York and California, have already introduced pay data requirements.
The majority of companies also plan to have a global strategy on pay rather than deferring to local rules, the survey shows, suggesting that other factors ,— including hiring and retention — remain problems amid a tight labor market.
Fair pay is becoming more important to employees, according to Mercer’s 2024 Global Talent Trends report, ranking as the second-most cited reason for staying at a firm — up from fourth in 2022.
That same report said that employees who change jobs often receive an average pay increase of 16% compared to a 5.6% bump for those who are remain at their jobs. There’s another reason to default to transparency: Like millennials, Gen Z employees are more likely to talk about pay than previous generations.
Pay transparency has also been shown to reduce the gender pay gap, according to a 2022 paper in Nature Human Behaviour, but the impact depends on how it’s implemented.