The U.S. economy grew 2.2% in 2025, a modest slowdown from 2.4% the previous year. GDP gains were fueled by solid consumer spending and business investment.

Learn about the pros and cons of command economies and their impact on inequality, innovation, and efficiency. See how they measure up against free-market systems.

The report also underscores an odd aspect of the U.S. economy: It is growing steadily, but without creating many jobs. Growth was a fairly healthy 2.2% in 2025, yet a government report last week showed that employers added less than 200,000 jobs last year — the fewest since COVID struck in 2020.

The US economy grew at a much slower pace in the final months of 2025 as the historic government shutdown weighed on economic activity, ending a year that saw the weakest growth since the pandemic.

GDP grew at an annualized rate of 1.4% in the fourth quarter, down from 4.4% in the third quarter. The report was originally scheduled for Jan. 29, but was released at 8:30 a.m. ET Friday because of government shutdown-related delays.

Gross domestic product expanded at a 1.4 percent annual rate in the last quarter of the year, hit by the effects of the government shutdown.

President Donald Trump has spoken before Congress plenty of times.