Greenspan Says Unemployment to Top 10%

With more than 15.1 million people out of work in the United States, unemployment reached 9.8% during the month of September — the highest rate in 26 years. And former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said things are going to get worse. On ABC’s This Week, Greenspan predicted that the unemployment rate will surpass 10% and then “stay there for a while before we start down.”

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Though he is definitely concerned with the unemployment statistics, Greenspan says a second stimulus plan is not needed now.

“In my judgment it’s far better to wait and see how this momentum that has already begun to develop in the economy carries forward,” he said.

Greenspan also voiced his concern with the number of people out of work for six months or more, which reached 5.4 million last month.

“People who are out of work for very protracted periods of time lose their skills eventually,” he said. “What makes an economy great is a combination of the capital assets of the economy and the people who run it. And if you erode the human skills that are involved there, there is a real and, in one sense, an irretrievable loss.”