USA

Economy:
GDP (purchasing power parity): $14.26 trillion
GDP – per capita (PPP): $46,400
Population: 307,212,123
The United States’ GDP is the 2nd largest in the world, next to the European Union. Gross National Income (GNI) ranks the United States as the 15th wealthiest in the world.

Language: American English
American English is unofficially the national language of the United States. It is spoken by 82.1% of the population, while the second most spoken language is Spanish with 10.7% usage.

Internet Penetration
1.59 million domain names registered
22.77 million users online

Paid Search Engines in USA:
Google (64.9% market share)
Yahoo (18.8% market share)
Microsoft (9.4 % market share)
Ask (3.9% market share)
AOL (3.0% market share)

About United States:
The United States, the world’s bastion of capitalism and free enterprise, has the largest and most technologically advanced economy in the world.

Despite a recent global economic slump spawned by a subprime mortgage crisis, falling real estate prices, and tight credit, the United States continued to enjoy a per capita income of $46,900 and gross domestic product (GDP) of $14.26 trillion in 2009, the highest in the world after the European Union.

The slump drove the country and the rest of the world into economic recession in December 2007, characterized by a marked decline in international trade and increase in unemployment rate. GDP contracted until the third quarter of 2009, making this the longest economic slump since the Great Depression of the 1920s.

To arrest the slump, the United States Congress earmarked a $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in October 2008, aimed primarily to help stabilize financial markets and pump prime key industries affected by the economic downturn. Measures to streamline credit policies were likewise laid down and implemented by financial institutions.

After posting a negative GDP growth rate in 2008, the United States showed signs of rebound in the last quarter of 2009. For the first quarter of 2010, the US economy continued to post encouraging economic indicators by recording a 3.2 GDP growth, but conservative economic analysts continued to be unimpressed. With unemployment still at record high of 9.5 percent, they believe the economy is not stable enough since 70 percent or more of the US economy is consumer-driven.

While individual spending rose 0.6 percent, or $36 billion, in April 2010, there has been no significant increase in employment. The economy needs more jobs to fuel consumer purchases and recovery. Despite a slack in employment, the United States maintains the world’s most productive labor force in 2008, surpassing Norway, France, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
Last year, the American labor force consisted of 154.4 million people, with 81 percent employed in the service sector. Many U.S. employers adopt new technological advances in running their businesses, resulting in the unspoken development of a “two-tier labor market,” where those with professional/technical skills are given more incentives in terms of pay, health insurance, and other benefits than unskilled workers. Unlike Japan where lifetime employment for workers is still practiced, the United States tops the list countries that can hire and fire workers with relative ease.

Despite the economy’s highly capitalist structure and poverty incidence of 13.2 percent, the government’s social services are among the best in the world. U.S. President Barrack Obama recently signed into law a health insurance reform bill extending the coverage to an additional 32 million American citizens by 2016.

Aside from a productive multicultural workforce drawn to the so-called “American dream,” the United States draws its economic strength from its vast natural resources and highly developed infrastructure. The economy is largely driven by private sector initiatives with its 55.3 percent contribution to the economy. The government accounts for the rest, with federal activities accounting for 24.1 percent and local government contributing 20.6 percent.

The United States is a post-industrial society where the service sector contributes 67.8 percent of the economy, although it remains a world industrial power and a top producer of raw energy, including crude oil, nuclear energy, and liquid natural gas. It is the world’s third largest producer of oil, but it remains the world’s largest importer of oil to fuel homes and industries.