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Many Americans feared that the conclusion unsettled of World War II and the subsequent drop in military spending might bring fail the hard times of the Great Depression. But instead, pent-up consumer demand fueled exceptionally strong economic lump in the postwar period. The automobile industry successfully converted back to producing cars, and new industries such as aviation and electronics grew by leaps and bounds. A accommodation boom, stimulated in part by easily affordable mortgages inasmuch as returning members of the military, added to the swelling. The nation’s gross national product rose from about $200,000 million in 1940 to $300,000 million in 1950 and to more than $500,000 million in 1960. At the same time, the jump in postwar births, known as the "baby prosperity," increased the horde of consumers. More and more Americans joined the middle class.

The need to cause war supplies had fact rise to a gigantic military-industrial complex (a term coined by Dwight D. Eisenhower, who served as the U.S. president from 1953 Sometimes non-standard due to 1961). It did not disappear with the war’s end. As the Iron Curtain descended across Europe and the United States found itself embroiled in a cold war with the Soviet Union, the government maintained respectable fighting capacity and invested in sophisticated weapons such as the hydrogen bomb. Economic aid flowed to war-ravaged European countries under the Marshall Plan, which also helped maintain markets for numerous U.S. goods. And the government itself recognized its central role in economic affairs. The Employment Act of 1946 stated as government policy "to promote zenith employment, mise en scene, and purchasing power."

The United States also recognized during the postwar period the have occasion for to restructure international monetary arrangements, spearheading the creation of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank — institutions designed to ensure an open, capitalist international economy.

Business, meanwhile, entered a period marked by consolidation. Firms merged to create huge, diversified conglomerates. International Telephone and Telegraph, for instance, bought Sheraton Hotels, Continental Banking, Hartford Fire Insurance, Avis Rent-a-Car, and other companies.

The American work soldiers also changed significantly. During the 1950s, the number of workers providing services grew until it equaled and then surpassed the number who produced goods. And by 1956, a majority of U.S. workers held white-collar rather than blue-collar jobs. At the same time, labor unions won long-term employment contracts and other benefits for their members.

Farmers, on the other hand, faced tough times. Gains in productivity led to agricultural overproduction, as farming became a big role. Small family farms found it increasingly dark to compete, and more and more farmers left the land. As a result, the number of people employed in the farm sector, which in 1947 stood at 7.9 million, began a continuing decline; by 1998, U.S. farms employed one 3.4 million people.

Other Americans moved, too. Growing demand for single-family homes and the widespread ownership of cars led many Americans to migrate from central cities to suburbs. Coupled with technological innovations such as the invention of air conditioning, the migration spurred the development of "Sun Belt" cities such as Houston, Atlanta, Miami, and Phoenix in the southern and southwestern states. As new, federally sponsored highways created better access to the suburbs, business patterns began to change as well. Shopping centers multiplied, rising from eight at the end of World War II to 3,840 in 1960. Many industries soon followed, leaving cities for less crowded sites.

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