(Reuters) – U.S. unemployment could rise again as businesses adjust to a likely longer recession than first anticipated, and initiatives like the Paycheck Protection Program expire, Richmond Fed president Thomas Barkin said on Tuesday.
“There is a complicated brew of what’s happening on unemployment…A bunch of companies large and small are realizing this is not a two-month issue and recasting their business,” possibly jeopardizing two strong months of job growth, Barkin said in webcast remarks to the Charlotte Rotary Club. Small business recipients of PPP loans, meanwhile, may have kept employees on staff to meet the terms of loan forgiveness, but may now consider laying them off as the program expires and demand remains weak.
(Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
