MNI TRANSCRIPT: Powell on Labor Market

     WASHINGTON (MNI) - The following is the portion of a transcript from

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's press conference Wednesday:

     Q: I want to follow up on a question on labor market. I know you said that

it's highly uncertain, but there are analysts who think that we will have very

high unemployment until even the end of next year, as high as 9 percent. At this

point, can you talk more about what you see as the path of employment in the

coming months and into next year?

     A: Sure. Unemployment is going to go up to a high number in the second

quarter. Uncertain what the number will be. When, and that is because so much

economic activity has been shuttered really, as we take social distancing

measures. So sometime fairly soon here, and probably gradually and at different

paces at different parts of the country, we will see social distancing measures

rolled back. People will begin to spend more money. It is consumer spending has

fallen precipitously, and once that starts to happen, people will get hired back

and unemployment will go back down. I don't think it will get anywhere near the

historically low levels that we had as recently as February, three and a half

percent. It will take time for that to happen for to us get back to anything

that resembles maximum employment. But, the main thing we want is get back on

the road, get that recovery going, and get people back to work as fast as we

can. Not faster than we can. But as fast as we can. The main thing is to get

into that stage where the economy is healing, where we have the disease under

control, where we don't take too much risk of second and third waves and that

sort of thing, and get people back to work. It's again, the path of it is highly

uncertain. But we will be there with our tools supporting the economy and

supporting that recovery.

--MNI Washington Bureau; +1 202 371 2121; email: evan.ryser@marketnews.com

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