The U.S. economy has hit a lot of bumps in the road lately and the way forward is unlikely to get any smoother. MarketWatch reports: 

The first big clue will come Wednesday. Gross domestic product in the third quarter running from July to September is forecast to fall to about 1.4% from a 2% pace of growth in the spring.

GDP is the official scorecard, so to speak, of how well the economy is doing. Historically the U.S. has grown more than 3% a year, but the last time it reached that mark was in 2005. Most economists think the U.S. can grow no faster than about 2%, at least not for any extended time.

The other piece of bad news is due Friday when the governments reveals how many new jobs were created in October. Economists predict the U.S. generated fewer than 100,000 new jobs last month, a figure that would be the lowest since May and one of the weakest numbers in seven years.