New Delhi: The US is staring at a bleak economy in 2024, in which millions of Americans would lose their jobs. A report released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Friday, projected a rise in the unemployment rate from 3.9 per cent to 4.4 per cent by the end of the year.
The report, titled ‘Current View of the Economy From 2023 to 2025’, also forecasted a slowdown in the real gross domestic product (GDP) growth from 2.5 percent in 2023 to 1.5 percent in 2024, as a result of economic adjustments and policy changes.
The CBO, a nonpartisan office that provides economic analysis for Congress, attributed the expected deterioration in the economic conditions to several factors, including weaker consumer spending, lower nonresidential investment, and reduced exports. The report said that these factors would outweigh the positive effects of higher government spending and lower taxes,
The report’s projections were consistent with the current trends in the labor market, which showed signs of tightening in December. According to the report, about 202,000 new claims for unemployment benefits were filed in the first week of the month, and about 1.87 million workers were still receiving unemployment benefits, indicating a scarcity of job opportunities, Hindustan Times reported.
The Federal Reserve, the central bank of the U.S., had a similar outlook for the economy in 2024, although slightly more optimistic than the CBO. The Fed predicted that the real GDP growth would slow down to 1.4 percent in 2024, before rebounding in the following years. The Fed also expected the unemployment rate to increase to 4.1 percent by the end of 2024, which was lower than the CBO’s estimate.
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