The U.S. economy grew in the most recent quarter, which was the third consecutive improvement.

The gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measurement of economic activity, rose at a 3.2 percent annual rate in first three months ended March 31, which sets the stage for gains in employment that could help recovery in the United States accelerate, Bloomberg News reported today.

The increase capped the largest six-month gain in GDP since 2003. The rate of growth, however, slowed from the fourth quarter’s 5.6 percent pace. CNNMoney.com reported that the results confirm the view by many economists that the recession that began in December 2007 ended at some point in the middle of 2009.

Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy, rose at a 3.6 percent rate last quarter, which was the largest increase since the first quarter of 2007. Consumer spending had grown at a 1.6 percent rate in the prior three months.

“It was a very strong quarter for the consumer,” Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Mass., told Bloomberg. “The important thing in the coming months is seeing employment starting to come back to give some income support.”

Business spending on new equipment grew at a 13 percent rate after advancing at a 19 percent rate in the previous quarter. Spending on structures such as building and factories, however, dropped at a 14 percent pace in the first quarter.

General Electric Co. CEO Jeffrey Immelt said business investment rather than consumer spending will drive U.S. economic recovery.

“The clouds are breaking and the forecast ahead of us is promising,” Immelt told shareholders.

Immelt also told Bloomberg that GE plans to hire more workers in the United States this year.

Spending by state and local governments fell 3.8 percent, which was the largest drop since 1981.