Economic Recovery | featured news

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on Wednesday the global economy was rebounding from the financial crisis but recovery remains unbalanced.

Developments in Greece helped stocks in the United States, closing a volatile quarter marked by debt concerns in the euro zone and by a struggling economic recovery at home.

Austerity measures being adopted by many industrialized world governments in the wake of the 2008-09 financial crisis are undermining economic recovery, a United Nations report said on Wednesday.

Americans are finally getting some relief from high gas and food prices. Wholesale food prices fell last month by the most in nearly a year, and gas prices keep dropping after peaking in May. A separate survey suggests CEOs are feeling more optimistic and will hire more in the second half of this year.

In a healthy recovery, states and localities produce jobs, expand social services and help fuel the nation's economic growth. Then there's the 2011 recovery. The U.S. economy is moving ahead, however fitfully. Yet state and local governments are still stuck in recession. Short of cash, they cut 30,000 jobs in May, the seventh straight month they've shed workers. Rather than add to U.S. economic growth, they're subtracting from it.

New doubts about the economic recovery's strength knocked the Dow Jones industrial average down almost 200 points Wednesday... The ISM's manufacturing index fell to 53.5 in May from 60.4 in April... And private employers added just 38,000 jobs in May, down from 177,000 in April, according to payroll processor ADP.

Consumers are saving more and reducing debt, behavior that could lead to a more sustainable economy. Signs of slower growth in the United States, coupled with rising fears over the European debt crisis and other unsettling developments, are fueling concern about whether the sputtering U.S. recovery could stall or even enter a new downturn.

The number of people applying for unemployment benefits fell sharply for the second straight week, suggesting the job market is slowly recovering.

Signs of weakness in the U.S. economic recovery mounted as reports on Wednesday showed a sharp slowdown in the vast services sector and less hiring by private companies in April.

Lower unemployment, bankruptcies and foreclosures in March reduced the nation's economic stress to its lowest point this year, according to The Associated Press' monthly analysis of conditions around the country.