Unemployment expected to reach record lows

Unemployment expected to reach record lows

May 20th at 6:30 pm lp with economic recovery.

Huge amount of people that are unemployed and a lot of them, even here in oregon, josephine county, we've got a couple of businesses that are reopening.

Even though the governor's executive order is still in place, they're reopening because they say, you know, we have to make money.

Essentially there's, there's not a choice for people because they're not getting relief that they need, and it's just been such a long time in shutdown that they really need to start seeing that income again.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The unemployment numbers are absolutely staggering.

We're over 30 million and the official report tomorrow, we expect to see millions more, uh, for perspective.

That's about one fifth of all the workers in america, and we didn't see this rate of, of collapse in the great depression.

We didn't see this in the great recession of 2008, 2009.

That was about 1% a month, not, not 20% over six weeks.

Uh, so it's just a staggering implosion, uh, which is why we worked to have a very robust unemployment insurance program with an extra $600 per week, uh, pitched in by the federal government.

It's why we have the small business program to try to enable the small businesses to get.

To basically how the federal government may pay their payroll for them for two months plus an extra 25% on top.

But my heart really goes out to these small businesses because many of them had to shut down where they were waiting for that federal ppp program.

Uh, they, uh, they have to reopen if they're going to be made, make their rent down the line.

We need more flexibility in that program by the way, to help them when they reopen or extend the length and size of, of of that.

That program.

Uh, but we can do, uh, smart reopenings where we learn from the retail essential businesses that have been open, if you will, the grocery stores and so forth.

And if we examine that through contact tracing.

And know that people are not getting infected.

If you have one way isles and mass on the clerks and plexiglass around the clerk and uh, or, uh, other face masks by the customers and so forth, then we know we can safely reopen this economy.

And that's what i think we all want to get to.

So let's, let's get that contact tracing in place, understand what we can do safely and, um, and proceed forward.

And how far off do you think that is?

Well, it's been hampered both by the shortage in personal protective equipment and by the shortage and testing capacity.

And these should have been cranked up using the defense production act.

Uh, they weren't, uh, the federal government at point said, we'll take care of it.

Uh, and then they said, states have to take care of it.

And it said states should compete ain cother and just buyuff on ty other developed country treats us as a national challenge with tnal leadership, national gency, and that's what we ould do as well.

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