As the omicron variant spreads, the impact it will have on the fragile economic recovery remains uncertain. Justin Wolfers, professor of public policy and economics, talked to numerous media outlets about economic recovery, the jobs report, and inflation.
"The short answer is that Covid recovery is different than a standard economic recovery. We expected the post-pandemic recovery to be a lot faster," Wolfers told Barron's. "You close an economy, you re-open, you get back to work relatively quickly. Moreover, this was for a period which looked like Covid-19 was on the retreat. We subsequently learned that was not true."
A dismaying jobs report was released last week, showing that experts may be too optimistic about recovery.
"Today's employment report is doubly disappointing, because the reference week occurred just as it looked like Covid was on the retreat," Wolfers said in a Fox Business article. "This was a moment for people to return to malls and to return to work. The COVID-related news has only gotten worse since then."
As for inflation, Wolfers doesn't think there's reason to worry yet.
“As long as there’s some productivity growth there, that’s not raising too many inflationary red flags,” Wolfers told The Wall Street Journal.
Read the news items featuring Wolfers below:
- Why the Jobs Report Missed So Badly, Barron's, December 3, 2021
- Wages Shoot Up in Travel, Food and Other In-Demand Industries, The Wall Street Journal, December 3, 2021
- US hiring stumbles in November as economy adds just 210,000 new jobs, Fox Business, December 3, 2021
