But it's a long U.S. expansion You really have

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But it's a long U.S. expansion

You really have to be an economic illiterate and or a willfully ignorant idealogue to cherry pick GDP growth as though it is the ONLY metric, or even the most important one, for an economic recovery.

Plenty of experts say "hold on." This recovery may be slow, but it's also lasted a long time -- far longer than usual -- and job growth has been good.

"We are in the fourth longest expansion in U.S. history," notes Achuthan.

Since World War II, the American economy has typically grown for about five years and then had a contraction. This expansion is already over seven years old.

8 years now since this article was written, proving that the economy had 'legs' enough to last this long.

Furthermore, the average pace of job growth in this recovery has already topped what happened during the 2001 to 2007 expansion under President George W. Bush (the Bush recovery was the slowest in terms of jobs growth, Achuthan says).

Over 14 million jobs have been added since the low point from the financial crisis. Job growth is as important -- if not more important -- than overall growth, many economists argue.

"We are experiencing the longest string of consecutive monthly jobs gains in economic history," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.

U.S. long recovery chart



The Baby Boomer effect

Then there's the fact that the U.S. had to climb out of the deepest hole since the Great Depression. While growth has been slow, it's been a lot better in the U.S. than in Europe and Japan.

Plus, the economy has dragged as the U.S. as Baby Boomers have begun to retire. There simply aren't as many people working as there once were. Growth overall has been slowing in America since the 1970s as the population ages and productivity stalled.

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