Mass unemployment that has accompanied the coronavirus pandemic has been compounded by people who don’t want to come back to work, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday in its periodic summary of the national economy.
With the unemployment rate through April at a post-World War II record 14.7% and 20.5 million layoffs during the month, workers are reluctant to head back to their jobs for a number of reasons, the central bank noted in its “Beige Book” report.
Business leaders “cited challenges in bringing employees back to work, including workers’ health concerns, limited access to childcare, and generous unemployment insurance benefits,” the report said.
“Although many contacts expressed hope that overall activity would pick-up as businesses reopened, the outlook remained highly uncertain and most contacts were pessimistic about the potential pace of recovery,” the report said. – READ MORE
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