Home/American Shipper/U.S. economy grew 2.8% in 3Q American Shipper U.S. economy grew 2.8% in 3Q FreightWaves Staff · Friday, November 08, 2013 The growth was a bit stronger than many experts had expected and was followed Friday morning by the announcement that the unemployment rate inched up to 7.3 percent even as the economy created 204,000 jobs.