MNI TRANSCRIPT: Powell Says Millions Won't Return to Past Jobs

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

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's press conference on Wednesday:

     Q: As you know, the vast majority of people have been laid off are

expecting to be called by their employers. At this point, what is your

expectation of how much of these job losses will be permanent?

     A: I don't have a reliable estimate of that. Clearly not everyone will go

back, and I would say many will go back. What's going to be the remainder when,

you know, we reach sort of the new normal. It's so uncertain but it can be a

good number of millions of people in many estimates. I'd say you're so early in

the process, people are going back and looking at other significant changes in

the economy, and they've seen how many people go back when, for example, there's

a technological change and things like that. You come up with AN estimate. It's

hard to say. My assumption is that there will be a significant chunk well into

the millions. I don't want to give you a number, because it's a guess. Well,

well into the millions of people who don't get to go back to their old JOB and

there may not a job for them for some time. There will be eventually. TM be some

years before we get back to those people finding jobs. When people lose a job,

if they can find a job in their own industry, that's usually the fastest way, is

they know other people in that industry, different kinds of jobs. That's the

fastest to go to a different industry and start over here, it's harder when you

lose people falling out of the labor force. It's very tough on their lives. We

know people to whom that happened in the global financial crisis. Hence, our

desire to do what we can to support this recovery with the tools that we have.

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

[TOPICS: MMUFE$,M$U$$$]