Down to 3.2% in the first quarter of 2010. And that sounds pretty good until you realize that fourth quarter GDP growth in 2009 was 5.7%. So we’ve actually fallen 2.5% since the last quarter alone. That’s not the trend we need.

Worse yet? Analysts weren’t expecting the growth to be this small. Keep that in mind next time you hear experts talking about their expectations and predictions of a recovering economy.

The U.S. economy grew at a 3.2 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, evidence that the economic recovery continues to plug along but that growth is not accelerating in a way that would bring down joblessness rapidly.

The first-quarter gain in gross domestic product represents a deceleration from the 5.6 percent pace of growth in the final months of 2009, and is a bit below the 3.5 percent growth analysts were forecasting.

Ed Morrissey explains that highlighted bit:

The last time the US suffered this kind of recession and unemployment, in 1982, it took several quarters of annualized growth of between 7%-9% in order to generate sufficient numbers of jobs to seriously lower unemployment. The long-term trend of the American economy is growth between 2.5-3%, which makes the 2010Q1 result barely a blip above average. It indicates that the current job situation may well become the “new normal,” with high unemployment remaining in place for years to come.

We’ve been hearing speculation of that outcome for some time. The White House has already said it doesn’t expect any real job growth in 2010, and next year’s not looking peachy keen either.

Hey, you know what it’s time for? Barack Obama to tell us that companies have made enough money…again.