Economists foresee small pickup in U.S. growth for 2012

A new economic forecast calls for the U.S. economy to make some modest growth strides this year, but not enough to significantly reduce the number of jobless Americans looking for work. About two-thirds of the economists who participated in the latest National Association for Business Economics survey expect the nation’s gross domestic product to grow at a rate above 2% this year, according to the outlook released today. GDP reflects the economy’s total output of goods and services. The latest forecast is less optimistic than one issued by the group in November that estimated the economy would grow 2.4% this year, but it’s better than the 1.8% growth that the economists calculate occurred during 2011. “That is not the sort of GDP growth that’s really going to dramatically improve our labor market, but it’s certainly not going to make it worse,” Nayantara Hensel, professor of industry and business at National Defense University and chair of the NABE survey, tells The Associated Press. GDP growth needs to be above 3% to significantly lower unemployment, which is at its lowest rate in nearly three years but remains at a troubling 8.5%. Final GDP numbers for the last three months of 2011 are due out Friday. Check out the full story here for the complete survey findings.