A key measure of manufacturing in the United States rebounded in May.

Friday's report from the Commerce Department says orders for expensive manufactured items intended to last three years or more jumped 1.9 percent.

That is a sharp change from the prior month that saw a decline in such “durable goods,” which include everything from refrigerators to commercial aircraft.

A separate report shows the overall U.S. economy grew a bit faster than first thought in the first few months of 2011.

A government report says the U.S. gross domestic product expanded at a 1.9 percent annual pace in the first quarter, up a tenth of a percent from an earlier estimate. While the new GDP figures are better than first thought, they are significantly lower than the growth seen in the last quarter of last year.

The GDP is the broadest measure of the health of an economy, and is the sum of all the goods and services produced in a nation.