January 11, 2021
Peter Orazem, university professor, was interviewed for a Jan. 8 S&P Global story, "'A huge shock': December US job losses show a recovery on pause."
"The current job loss is affected by the pandemic surge," Peter Orazem, an economist at Iowa State University, said in an interview. "If the disease spread ended or slowed with the rollout of the vaccine, we would see a rapid increase in employment. I expect that will show up by the second quarter."
Orazem said the impact of the stimulus has not yet hit, and that will have an effect on employment in the first quarter, particularly in sectors providing necessities.