Ex Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen says the real unemployment level could be 21 MILLION and that GDP is down by 30% as she warns of a depression
Yellen said: ‘If we had a timely unemployment statistic, the unemployment rate probably would be up to 12 or 13% at this point and moving higher’
She warned the downturn is ‘absolutely shocking’ amid the coronavirus outbreak
‘This is a huge, unprecedented, devastating hit’, Yellen told CNBC Monday
New claims for unemployment benefits rose to 6.65 million last week
By LAUREN FRUEN
DAILYMAIL.COM
6 April 2020
Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Monday the real unemployment level could be far higher than officially recorded as she warned of a depression.
Yellen told CNBC second-quarter GDP could decline by 30 per cent and unemployment is already at 12 per cent and 13 per cent amid the coronavirus outbreak.
She warned the downturn is ‘absolutely shocking’, adding: ‘If we had a timely unemployment statistic, the unemployment rate probably would be up to 12 or 13% at this point and moving higher.’
With a labor forced of 165 million that means up to 21 million Americans unemployed by Yellen’s calculations.
Yellen said: ‘This is a huge, unprecedented, devastating hit, and my hope is that we will get back to business as quickly as possible.’
On whether the economy can recover quickly with a sudden ‘V’ upturn, she warned: ‘I think a ‘V’ is possible, but I am worried that the outcome will be worse and it really depend to my mind on just how much damage is down during the time that the economy is shut down in the way it is now.
‘The more damage of that sort is done, the more likely we are to see a ‘U,’ and there are worse letters like ‘L’ and I hope we don’t see something like that.’
The number of Americans officially filing new claims for unemployment benefits last week has shot to a record 6.6 million – as layoffs increased amid the coronavirus pandemic and more states enforced stay-at-home orders.
New claims for unemployment benefits rose to 6.65 million in the week ending March 28, according to figures released by the Department of Labor on Thursday.
The number of first-time applications for jobless benefits was double the previous record of 3.3 million new claims filed for the week ending March 21.
It means that roughly 10 million Americans have lost their jobs and filed for unemployment in the two weeks that the coronavirus started rapidly spreading across the country.
In the same week of last year, only 211,000 people requested benefits for the first time.
The new unemployment claims account for the week in which states like New York shuttered non-essential businesses and enforced stay-at-home orders.
New claims for unemployment benefits rose to 6.65 million in the latest week from the 3.3 million the previous week. It means that 10 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the two weeks that the coronavirus started rapidly spreading across the country
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