The U.S. economy grew at the fastest recorded rate in more than a year last quarter, the Commerce Department announced on Friday. 

The 2.8 percent annual growth rate marks the 10th straight quarter of positive growth, the White House reported. The previous three quarters saw growth below 2 percent.

But the Economic Policy Institute’s Josh Bivens warns that “any celebration should be muted.”

“The 2.8 percent growth rate for the quarter was well below expectations, and the year-round growth rate for 2011 was only 1.7 percent, a rate that would not generate reliable declines in unemployment should it continue,” Bivens wrote in a statement.

Bivens says the figures make the case for a year-long extension of unemployment insurance benefits, as well as a sustained payroll tax cut “to keep 2012 from being a year of no improvement in joblessness.”