---
title: "The GDP Fell 9.5% in Q2"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/22984c33-ecef-49d0-a6f3-8a9aae831bdd
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/the-gdp-fell-95-in-q2-2713616
category: "General"
published: 2020-07-30T14:09:19.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T02:28:25.906Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/e8680abe76889074cf2dbe436d0a62e68863.jpg
---

# The GDP Fell 9.5% in Q2

**TL;DR:** The U.S. GDP fell 9.5% in Q2, with a $1.8 trillion loss, and consumer spending is down 10.1%, affecting franchise brands. Franchisors may have a unique opportunity to invest in development despite the economic downturn.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2020-07-30. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/the-gdp-fell-95-in-q2-2713616).*

## Story

**On Thursday, the** **U.S. Commerce Department revealed that the country’s gross domestic product fell by 9.5 percent** **in the second quarter of the year, losing about $1.8 trillion.** **As the New York Times points out****, that loss is the steepest since the advent of modern economic statistics.**

**A report from the Labor Department, also released Thursday, doesn’t inspire any more confidence, showing** **an additional 1.43 million new unemployment claims in the last week alone****.**

**Naturally, consumer spending is also down — by a whopping 10.1 percent in the second quarter, according to the Commerce Department — which is bad news for businesses across sectors, including franchise brands, many of which are continuing to struggle with shutdown orders that were widely expected to be lifted by this point in the summer.**

**With franchise brands competing desperately for their share of rapidly shrinking consumer spending, some franchisors may be inclined to panic, but there is a bright spot for the industry amid these dire circumstances: historically, franchises grow during periods of heightened unemployment.**

**Right now, franchisors have a wider pool of talented and experienced potential franchisee candidates than perhaps ever before, and many of them are eager for an opportunity to take control of their careers.**

**While most franchisors are understandably tightening their belts in anticipation of a long road to recover, now may be a uniquely lucrative time to invest in development.**

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- General (sector)
- franchise development (topic)
- consumer spending (topic)
- economic downturn (topic)
- Labor Department (regulator)
- unemployment (topic)
- U.S. Commerce Department (regulator)
- gdp decline (topic)

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Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/the-gdp-fell-95-in-q2-2713616). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/22984c33-ecef-49d0-a6f3-8a9aae831bdd).