“According to the data for April, the unemployment rate now stands at a staggering 14.7 percent -– a figure I hoped that I would never see in my lifetime, and one that is sure to get worse before it gets better,” John C. Williams, the president and chief executive officer of the New York Federal Reserve said Thursday during a videoconference meeting with other New York financial groups. “If I think back to the economic picture of February, nobody could foresee this would be our reality within a few short months.”
“We all know the incredible strain that New York City has been under, with numerous patients still being diagnosed with COVID-19 on a daily basis. But upstate New York has also been deeply affected—not just by the spread of the virus, but also by the profound economic fallout,” Williams said. New York has seen over 2 million claims paid out during the pandemic, according to the state’s labor department.
The U.S. Department of Labor released a report Thursday that said the U.S. saw an additional 2.4 million people file unemployment claims for the week ending May 16. That brings the total unemployment number to 38.6 million since the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“The COVID-19 virus continues to impact the number of initial claims and insure unemployment,” the labor department’s press release stated.
Williams said it is “impossible” to know when businesses and consumers will be able to return back to normal as the country is reeling from the effects of states shutting down business in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19.
“The cause of this recession—a global pandemic—means that our economic future will be determined in large part by the path of the virus,” Williams said.
The CEO said the Fed will take “extraordinary actions to ease economic pains.” The actions taken by the Fed during the pandemic include buying up large quantities of U.S. Treasury securities to stabilize the financial markets and setting up programs to make credit available to households and businesses.
“Amid all the change we’re experiencing, you can be assured of one thing: our unwavering commitment to limit the economic damage from the pandemic and foster conditions for a strong and sustained recovery,” Williams said.
