The U.S. unemployment rate in May 2013 (7.5 percent)
was more than 3 percent higher than its pre-crisis level (4.4 percent in May 2007), and
national output is still below its potential, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO
2013). U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) has grown every quarter since the third quarter of
2009, and private nonfarm payroll employment has grown every month since March 2010.
During the period of this 2014 U.S. U.S. Climate Action Report (2010–2013), the United States
has produced fewer GHG emissions annually than it did before the financial crisis. Even as
U.S. economic output increased, GHG emissions largely were steady or declining. In 2011,
GHG emissions declined by 108 teragrams of carbon dioxide equivalents (Tg CO2e) (–1.6
percent) from 2010, despite the 1.7 percent growth in the U.S. economy that year.