There are plenty of imperfect things about the U.S economy. But they should not obscure a central fact about 2024: The economy has barreled forward with robust expansion, despite it all.

Why it matters: The latest GDP report shows the economy kept expanding at an above-trend pace in late summer, with ongoing strength that keeps defying naysayers.

• "Simply put, where is the slowing?" economists at Brean Capital wrote in a note following today's report.
• That's despite some warning signs that have percolated for months, including a choppy job market, high interest rates weighing on homebuilding, higher debt delinquencies and more.

By the numbers: GDP rose at a 2.8% annualized rate in the July-September period, following the 3% growth in the second quarter.

• An underlying measure of demand that excludes volatile categories like trade and inventories — which don't signal much about the economy's health — also came in strong.
• Final sales to domestic purchasers, adjusted for inflation, rose to 3.5% from 2.8% in the second quarter.

Follow the money: Consumer spending explains much of the most recent quarter's robust activity. Personal consumption expenditures increased at a 3.7% annualized rate, up from 2.8% in the second quarter.

• That category is responsible for almost 2.5 percentage points of overall growth.

The big picture: In other words, consumers who might feel negatively about the economy are not acting like it. Solid hiring and wage growth have helped support activity.

• Anecdotes from some of the nation's large corporations that lower-income consumers are pulling back are not evident — at least not yet — in the aggregate data.

Zoom in: GDP also got a boost from exports and federal defense spending. Meanwhile, business spending on equipment rose a robust 11%.

• On the flip side, further deterioration in the housing sector led by slowing construction activity was a drag on the economy. So were imports: In theory, more imports signal consumer demand, but they are a negative in GDP calculations.

What they're saying: The Biden White House noted that this is the last quarter of GDP data that will be released before the next administration takes over; Q4 data isn't due out until post-inauguration in late January. And they took a moment to boast in a briefing this morning.

• "Consumer spending is up, and so are savings, on the back of good job opportunities, rising real wages and renewed optimism," top economic adviser Lael Brainard told reporters.

The bottom line: New GDP numbers may not change the election year discourse, but they affirm that the U.S. economy's bull run remains intact, with room yet to go.

GDP wasn't the only rosy data this morning. Payroll processor ADP said its measure of private-sector job growth unexpectedly surged ahead in October.

Driving the news: ADP said employers added 233,000 jobs in October, up from a revised 159,000 in September. That is the strongest job creation reported in 15 months, and it occurred despite major hurricanes in the Southeast that analysts expected would drag down payroll numbers.

Between the lines: It is the latest evidence that a summer slump in the job market, evident in both the ADP data and government statistics, was temporary at worst, a head fake at best.

• The Federal Reserve's pivot to interest rate cuts in September may have helped curtail the slump.
• "Over the summer, we seemed to see a malaise," ADP chief economist Nela Richardson told reporters this morning. "That malaise was interpreted as a soft job market."
• "In actuality, it appeared to be uncertainty," she said. "Uncertainty around interest rates. How much financing costs were going to be. Rate cuts signaled to companies that it was OK to go ahead and start planning."

What's next: The federal government's October jobs numbers are due out Friday morning. Analysts expect them to show a hurricane-depressed 111,000 jobs added and the jobless rate unchanged at 4.1%

• The Fed is scheduled to meet again next Wednesday and Thursday, and is expected to cut rates by another quarter-point.