“I would expect that if this package goes through, we will return to full employment next year,” Yellen told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
“The Congressional Budget Office recently released an analysis and it showed that if we don’t provide additional support, the unemployment rate will remain high for years to come,” she added. “It would take (until) 2025 to bring the unemployment rate down to 4%.”
Yellen’s assessment comes as the White House pushes the president’s package through Congress, where it faces resistance from Republicans opposed to its price as well as some of its key elements. Lawmakers are under pressure to adopt a relief package as Americans continue to suffer financially amid the economic fallout from the pandemic.
Full employment does not mean that the unemployment rate is zero, but, in general, that employers have hired as many qualified professionals as needed.
The January jobs report showed that even though 49,000 jobs were added last month, the country is still down by almost 10 million jobs since before the crisis. The report also states that the unemployment rate fell to 6.3%, beating economists’ expectations, marking the first drop in two months.
The CBO said in a report released last week that the number of Americans employed would not return to its pre-pandemic level until 2024, showing how much the labor market has yet to recover after suffering the strongest loss never recorded in April. , when 20.5 million jobs were lost and the unemployment rate soared to 14.7% in a single month as the coronavirus ravaged the country.
Biden’s plan, which the secretary said is “large enough to meet (the) full range of needs” facing the country’s economy, includes a wide range of immediate assistance for struggling families, such as than $ 1,400 stimulus checks and extended unemployment, nutrition and eviction assistance. and longer term changes, such as a minimum hourly wage of $ 15.
This story is out and will be updated.
CNN’s Tami Luhby, Katie Lobosco, Chris Isidore and Anneken Tappe contributed to this report.
