Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
The Southern region of the United States currently has the lowest unemployment rate in the country at 6.9%.
Several southern states in particular, including Georgia and Florida, were among the first to reopen parts of their economies while shutting down businesses in many parts of the country to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
Atlanta Fed Chairman Rafael Bostic said that was not the reason for the region’s lower unemployment rate compared to the Northeast as the rate rose by 3 percentage points as of August.
The virus came to us after it reached California, the West Coast and New York. That’s why we learned a few things about how we can function and do our economies, with the virus with us, Bostic said on Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation”.
He added, “It turned out to be a very useful thing.”
Having said that, Bostic expressed his concern about the path of economic recovery in the region.
“In some sectors, the economy is recovering and recovering in a very strong way,” he said. He said that hotels, restaurants and small businesses “in minority and low-income communities in particular are experiencing much more difficult situations.”
“Those parts where we don’t see this recovery, that’s really what I’m worried about as we go forward.”
Postic, the first black regional Fed leader to be put up as the Democratic candidate for the presidency, Joe Biden chose either the chair of the Federal Reserve or the Secretary of the Treasury if he wins the election.
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I asked Margaret Brennan of CBS Post if he would be interested in taking any of these positions.
“There is so much going on now that I don’t think about it,” Bostic replied, but he did not say he would reject either position.
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