Keeping Track: gross domestic product

The main measure of the US economy, gross domestic product, edged up in the final quarter of 2001. That means the current recession occurred without the two consecutive quarters of negative growth often called requisite for a recession. The National Bureau of Economic Research, which dates recession to last March, uses a range of statistics, including employment.

The unemployment rate dropped in January for the first time in eight months, to 5.6 percent, the Labor Department said Friday. One reason, however: A million Americans stopped job-hunting.