Anderson report sees slow, steady growth

Economists at the University of California, Los Angeles, predicted Wednesday the U.S. gross domestic product will rise to 3 percent by 2014. The closely watched UCLA Anderson Forecast said the GDP, which has posted an annual growth rate of 2 percent for the past four years, would be pushed by gains in the housing and automobile sectors. In addition, "renewed growth in business construction and exports" would be positive contributors, the report said. The economists forecast job growth will hold steady in 2013, continuing the 181,000 jobs per month pace experienced in 2012. By 2014, that number would hit 200,000 jobs per month and rise by another 20,000 jobs per month in 2015, when the economy would gain 220,000 jobs per month, if the forecast holds true. "As a result, by the end of 2015, the unemployment rate will fall to about 6.5 percent," the UCLA Anderson School of Management report said. Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.