Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang predicted that “42 percent” of the jobs lost so far in the self-imposed economic shutdowns “won’t come back.”
Yang talked about the latest dire unemployment numbers and speculated that the permanent job losses could be “almost two times” those lost during the Great Recession of 2007-2009 in a Thursday morning appearance on CNN’s “New Day.”
WATCH:
“Well, the suffering unfortunately is all too real,” Yang said, adding that his nonprofit organization is “getting inundated with requests for help.”
“And we have to face facts that 42% of these jobs will not come back,” he continued. “You’re looking at essentially long-standing or permanent job loss of 15 million plus, and for reference, the Great Recession cost us less than 9 million jobs.” (RELATED: California City To Allow Reopenings, Declares Itself A ‘Sanctuary City’ For Business)
“So you’re looking at something almost two times the Great Recession, permanently,” said Yang.
The entrepreneur and CNN contributor, who has endorsed Joe Biden for president, called for the federal government to “pass enormous stimulus measures to keep us from teetering into a new great depression, because that unfortunately is where we are heading right now.”