DAVID GREENE, HOST:
NPR's business news starts with starts with some discouraging numbers.
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GREENE: New reports out this morning suggest the U.S. economy is not recovering as quickly as some economists had hoped. We have been told that the economy grew 2.2 percent in the first three months of this year, but new figures today from the Commerce Department revise that number downward, to 1.9 percent - reflecting slower growth. And more Americans are jobless and seeking benefits. The Labor Department reports the number of Americans applying for first time unemployment insurance rose by 10,000 last week, to 373,000. The number of new applicants has risen steadily for four weeks. Tomorrow we will get another important measure of the economy, when the government releases statistics on unemployment for the month of May. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.