Fed Chair Powell: Real Unemployment Rate At 10%

[WHITT]

From yesterday's speech to the 'Economic Club of New York' by Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve:

Employment in January of this year was nearly 10 million below its February 2020 level, a greater shortfall than the worst of the Great Recession's aftermath.

After rising to 14.8 percent in April of last year, the published unemployment rate has fallen relatively swiftly, reaching 6.3 percent in January. But published unemployment rates during COVID have dramatically understated the deterioration in the labor market. Most importantly, the pandemic has led to the largest 12-month decline in labor force participation since at least 1948.

In addition, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that many unemployed individuals have been misclassified as employed. Correcting this misclassification and counting those who have left the labor force since last February as unemployed would boost the unemployment rate to close to 10 percent in January.

[link:https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/powell20210210a.htm|

[captain queeg]

1. At least. The way they classify people is always skewed.