- Sally Jewell, Secretary of the Interior
While markets are focusing on the unemployment rate and payrolls later this week, a new survey from the National Park Service showed an interesting fact that nobody was paying attention to. The report findings show that the U.S. 401 national parks support 243,000 jobs nationwide and contributed around $26.8 billion to the nation's economy thanks to 283 million visitors in 2012. That is enough to give the country a $10 return on every $1 spent on national parks.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration estimated that the U.S. economy will expand this year at the fastest pace since 2005, reducing unemployment rate further for a fourth consecutive year even as market borrowing costs increase. GDP is expected to grow 3.1% in 2014 after rising 1.9% a year earlier, while the jobless rate will stay around 6.9% this year down from 7.4%, the level seen last year, and will further fall to 6.4% in 2015. The $3.9 trillion spending request will underpin economy that is spurring employment while moving up inflation to levels unlikely to concern Fed's officials. The White House's 2014 growth outlook is higher than the 2.9% median forecast of economists surveyed last month, while unemployment rate projection for this year is less optimistic than the survey's median of 6.4%.
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