"The COVID-19 recession threw the economy into a very deep hole and it will take some time, perhaps another year, for the level of GDP to fully recover to its previous 2019 peak," Clarida said. "It will likely take even longer than that for the unemployment rate to return to a level consistent with our maximum-employment mandate."
US GDP shrank at its fastest pace in history in the second quarter of 2020, contracting by 31.4 percent after a drop of 3.4 percent in the first three months of the year amid widespread lockdowns imposed due to the novel coronavirus outbreak. In 2019, GDP rose by 4.1 percent.
More than 21 million jobs were lost between March and April at the height of lockdowns. A rebound of 2.5 million jobs was logged in May and 4.8 million in June before the recovery began slowing. Latest labour statistics for September showed a gain of 661,000 jobs.
