Austin Indian, May 2021, US Fed chief highlights slower recovery for low-wage, minority workers
US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that the American economy is “not out of the woods yet”, particularly with a slower recovery for low-wage and minority workers.
“While the recovery is gathering strength, it has been slower for those in lower-paid jobs,” Powell said at a virtual event sponsored by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.
“Almost 20 per cent of workers who were in the lowest earnings quartile in February of 2020 were not employed a year later, compared to 6 per cent for workers in the highest quartile,” he said.
The Fed’s latest Survey of Household Economic Decisionmaking (SHED), to be released later this month, will show that, “for prime-age adults without a bachelor’s degree, 20 per cent saw layoffs in 2020 versus 12 per cent for college-educated workers”, Xinhua news agency quoted Powell as saying.
