Half of America hasn't recovered from the recession
A decade after the financial crisis, the U.S. economy seems to be firing on all cylinders, with unemployment at a 50-year low and growth hitting its stride. But a deeper look reveals a more troubling picture: Between 2012 and 2015 -- a period when the recovery seemed to be gaining speed -- nearly half of all counties nationwide saw flat or declining growth, according to new government data.
More broadly, the Commerce Department figures highlight a stark and worrisome reality: While a handful of places around the U.S. are thriving, most regions are barely trudging ahead. And that trend is creating a widening geographic gap between a relatively few prosperous areas, mostly urban oases, and the desert of stagnation that lies beyond.
"For many communities, what you've got is a lost decade of economic growth," said John Lettieri, CEO of the Economic Innovation Group, a bipartisan think tank, adding that "the topline economy doesn't match the local experiences."
The bottom third of U.S. counties actually saw their economies shrink. Gross domestic product in these places, whose ranks include St. Clair County, Missouri, and Macon County, Illinois, shrank by an average of 2.25 percent each year between 2013 and 2015. (GDP represents the sum total of all the goods and services produced in a location in a given year.) For another 20 percent of counties, growth averaged an anemic 0.6 percent a year during that period.
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