'The worst is yet to come': The Fed's Kashkari issues a grim outlook for US jobs, and urges more assistance from Congress

• Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari said that US workers will likely need more aid from Congress for a gradual coronavirus recovery on a Sunday interview with ABC's "The Week."

• "It's really around 23%, 24% of people right now who are out of work today," Kashkari said, following April's jobs report Friday that showed 20.5 million jobs were lost in the month and the unemployment rate spiked to 14.7%.
• "If this is a gradual recovery the way I think it's going to be, those folks are going to need more help," he said.
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American workers may be in for more pain amid the coronavirus pandemic, even after Friday's dismal jobs report, said Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari on a Sunday interview with ABC's "The Week."

"The worst is yet to come on the job front, unfortunately," Kashkari said. The April jobs report showed the US lost a record 20.5 million jobs last month, and that the unemployment rate spiked to 14.7%, the highest since the Great Depression.

But even those numbers are likely an under count of the current situation. "It's really around 23%, 24% of people right now who are out of work today," Kashkari said. "And if this is a gradual recovery the way I think it's going to be, those folks are going to need more help."

So far, the government has allocated trillions of dollars in relief to American households, workers, and businesses. At the end of March, President Donald Trump signed a $2 trillion coronavirus relief act, and subsequent measures have been approved as well.

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In addition, the Federal Reserve has cut interest rates to nearly zero and unrolled a number of emergency facilities to help the economy, actions that will likely continue, according to Kashkari.

"We are going to put whatever we need to do to make sure the financial system continues to run," said Kashkari, who will vote on monetary policy this year.

He continued: "But this is, first and foremost, a healthcare crisis and so anything Congress can do to support more investment in any of those technology breakthroughs will be money well spent."

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