High unemployment isn’t going to last forever, but it sure seems to be lasting a while.
So far, the recession has left us with an unemployment rate of over 9% for more than 20 months – unprecedented since the Great Depression.
Murat Tasci, a research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, does not believe – as some have proposed – that the “natural rate of unemployment” has permanently reset at a higher level. He sees unemployment trickling lower over the next few years.
Click here to read Tachi’s analysis, released today.
Even given Tasci’s optimism for the labor market, it’s still not a pretty picture. Millions of Americans idled in a stagnant labor market has negative effects on the economy, too, from extended unemployment benefit payouts to strains on social services and charities, such as food banks.
