WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy will grow faster in 2012 — if it isn’t knocked off track by upheavals in Europe, according to an Associated Press survey of leading economists.
However, unemployment will barely fall from the current 8.6 percent rate by the time President Barack Obama runs for re-election in November, the economists say.
The three dozen private, corporate and academic economists expect the economy to grow 2.4 percent next year. In 2011, it likely grew less than 2 percent. The year is ending on an upswing. The economy has generated at least 100,000 new jobs for five months in a row — the longest such streak since 2006.
The number of people applying for unemployment benefits has dropped to the lowest level since April 2008. The trend suggests that layoffs have all but stopped and hiring could pick up.
The economists surveyed Dec. 14-20 expect the country to create 177,000 jobs a month through Election Day 2012. That would be up from an average 132,000 jobs a month so far in 2011. But Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist at Barclays Capital, said the U.S. economy remains vulnerable to an outside shock.
