Summary
In the 2nd quarter of 2020, the U.S. economy faced devastation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, then began to rebound as strict public health measures were relaxed after their initial success. In late April, states began easing the emergency restrictions on in-person gathering and nonessential business instituted in March to slow the spread of COVID-19. In some areas of the country, a resurgence in new COVID-19 infections forced renewed public-health restrictions by late June, casting uncertainty over the stability of the economic recovery.
Pandemic-induced constraints on nonessential activity began to seriously impact the world economy in the 1st quarter. A recession was declared in the U.S., marking February as the peak of an economic expansion that lasted 128 months from its beginning in June 2009. The national economic effects of COVID-19 reached an apex in April as unemployment rose to an all-time recorded high. GDP and consumer spending fell at their most rapid documented rates, despite government and central bank measures to cushion the fallout. Most economic measures began to recuperate in May and June, but at the end of the 2nd quarter, the U.S. economy remained far less robust than before the pandemic.