Answer: Improving rapidly.
When Jimmy Carter took office in 1977, the US economy was still recovering from the severe 1973-75 recession. However, it was doing so at a fast pace. The period of 1977-78 saw the creation of a million net new jobs and real median household income growth by 5%. However, this was to be short lived, as the 1979 energy crisis put a stop to this economic growth.
