At this rate it could take 3 years for employment to recover—But here’s how stimulus could help
The recovery of the U.S. economy is clearly in a precarious spot.
The unemployment rate for December remained flat from November at 6.7%, and the economy lost 140,000 jobs for the month—the first monthly net loss since April.
For economists like Moody’s Analytics’ Mark Zandi, “December was a bad month for a bad year,” he tells Fortune.
Though a new $900 billion relief package is on its way, having been signed at the end of December, Zandi believes the economy will struggle for the next several months as the pandemic rages on and vaccine distribution moves at a crawl. But with the latest relief deal and the “prospect for another one on the other side of the [presidential] Inauguration, I do think we’ll avoid that double-dip [recession],” he says.
That relief from Congress appears to have come on the late side, as the Friday report shows payrolls in … Read More
