Postwar Economy Sluggish.

After World War II the efficiency and productivity of the U.S. economy improved markedly. From 1945 to 1975 output per hour of labor increased 120 percent while output per standard unit of energy increased 23 percent. Work hours in agriculture fell from 19.2 to 7.5 percent of the total hours spent on all types of production while output per acre increased 33 percent. At the same time though, the economy was sluggish. There were four recessions between 1945 and 1961: 1948-1949,1953-1954,1957-1958, and 1960-1961 — three of them during Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency. Economic growth had hovered around the 2 percent level during the 1950s, and unemployment ran high. Beginning in 1957 the monthly unemployment rate dropped below 5 percent only three times. As the 1960 presidential election campaign got under way, the 1960-1961 recession began, with recovery from the 1957-1958 recession still incomplete.

Kennedy Promises Economic Growth.