ABSTRACT
At the close of the twentieth century the United States economy produced approximately five times more output than in 1950. The pace of growth over this period was uneven. Whereas real output expanded at an annual average rate of 3.9 percent between 1950 and 1973, annual growth rates declined to around 1.8 percent from 1973 until the deep recession of the early 1980s (United States Department of Commerce, Annual Survey of Manufactures, various years). Through the 1980s the economy recovered slowly, and following the Cold-War slowdown of 1989-91, United States economic output accelerated sharply at rates close to those of the postwar “golden age.” Economic growth has also been uneven from place to place. At the end of the Second World War, almost 60 percent of the nation’s employment was concentrated in the old industrial core comprising the New England, Mid-Atlantic and East North Central census regions. Today these regions contain only 37 percent of United States jobs, testimony to the development of new industrial places in the south and west of the country. At a more disaggregate scale, employment across the country generally has shifted from older to newer metropolitan centers and from inner cities to exurban regions.
