U.S. inflation had been outpacing wage increases for more than a year.
By Zoe Storzewski
Economist Peter Schiff predicted that the U.S. is headed for massive layoffs as a second consecutive quarter of gross domestic product (GDP) decline pushed the U.S. into recession under a common but unofficial definition.
Schiff made the prediction in a Twitter post Thursday, noting how the current state of the labor market has often been cited by those who disagree that the U.S. is in or headed for a recession.
“The Dems claim that we’re not in a #recession because unemployment is still low,” Schiff tweeted. “But weekly jobless claims continue to rise and mass layoffs are coming. In the meantime, even though most workers still have their jobs, they’ve all suffered huge pay cuts as a result of #inflation.”
GDP, which measures the nation’s total output of goods and services, declined at an annualized pace of 0.9 percent in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said Thursday. The first quarter of the year had a GDP decline of 1.6 percent. A commonly held definition holds that two consecutive quarters of GDP decline constitute a recession, meaning that the U.S. is now in one.