Call It A Comeback: Economy Continues to Recover

To call 2020 a roller coaster for the economy would be an understatement. And this being a presidential election year only raises the stakes even more. After opening the year at record highs in the stock market and employment, the onset of the coronavirus pandemic gutted the economy to historic lows in March and April, but since then there has been a steady recovery. In fact, economist Andy Puzder recently touted the significance of the jobs gains since the recovery began in May. In all the U.S. has recovered 11.4 million of the 20 million jobs lost in March and April and the unemployment rate has dropped from 14.7% in April to 7.9% this month.

Texas economist Ray Perryman says it's important to keep this momentum going. "We've gained back a little more than half the jobs we lost in March and April, an indication of some strength and speed in the recovery," he tells KTRH. "And I think you'll see the third quarter GDP numbers look good."

The biggest threat to continuing this recovery is the damage to small businesses due to continued shutdowns. "1 in 6 small businesses have already said they're probably permanently closed," says Perryman. "And that's just devastating to the economy, because that's where our creativity, our new job creation, all the new innovation takes place."

"We've now been in this for seven months or so, and when your cash flow is zero part of the time and down 50-60 percent the rest of the time, very few even well-run, well-managed family businesses can endure that for an extended period of time," he says.

The bottom line, according to Perryman, is that any further or extended business shutdowns risk permanent damage to the economy. "When we went into this, the economy was strong before the virus," he says. "If we keep the structure together, it stays strong...if we let the structure deteriorate, we're gonna have some long-term problems."

Photo: Getty Images

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