- Former US presidential candidate says 16 million jobs will be lost for good in the US alone because of Covid-19
- Yang reiterates calls for a universal basic income in the US to deal with the crippling effects of the pandemic
- Yang joined WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, The Handmaid's Tale author Margaret Atwood, and NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal at the 30,000-attendee online event Collision from Home
TORONTO, June 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Andrew Yang today said the number of American jobs lost forever because of Covid-19 will be double the number of job losses in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash. The former US presidential candidate and Humanity Forward founder made the remarks at the 30,000-attendee online conference Collision from Home, produced by the team behind Web Summit - the largest tech conference in the world.
"Right now we're looking at 38-39 million unemployment claims, which is an underestimate of the actual level of displacement because a lot of people were in very tenuous jobs and aren't going to be able to file for unemployment.
"And 42 percent of those jobs are gone for good, so you're looking at 16 million jobs gone forever. For reference, in the Great Recession we lost 9 million jobs or so. So you're looking at two times the Great Recession in perpetuity," said Yang, who repeated his calls for a universal basic income, saying the policy is essential in response to widespread job losses brought by Covid-19.
"We need universal basic income or some form of cash relief to help support families during this time, but also to start trying to create the next generation of opportunities. If you can imagine 16 million Americans having their lives disintegrate - that's the situation we're in. The only silver lining is we can accelerate meaningful solutions, like universal basic income," he said.
Watch a clip from the interview here.
About Andrew Yang:
Andrew Yang ran for president on the vision of building a human-centered economy and implementing a universal basic income of $1,000 a month for all Americans. Andrew's clear diagnosis of the problems that face the US and real vision for how to solve them inspired a nationwide movement to rewrite the rules of our economy and society to work for the people. With Humanity Forward, Andrew will work to help grow this movement.
About Collision:
Collision is known by CBC as the "TIFF for tech", while Inc. Magazine calls it the "fastest-growing tech conference in North America". Collision is set to move online for 2020 with Collision from Home. Collision will return to Toronto as a physical event for the second year from June 21-24, 2021 at the Enercare Centre.
About Web Summit:
Forbes says Web Summit is "the best tech conference on the planet"; Bloomberg calls it "Davos for geeks"; Politico, "the Olympics of tech"; The Guardian, "Glastonbury for geeks"; and, in the words of Inc. Magazine, "Web Summit is the largest technology conference in the world".
Whatever Web Summit is, it wouldn't be possible without an incredible team of over 200 employees based in Dublin, Lisbon, Toronto and Hong Kong, including world-class engineers, data scientists, designers, producers, marketers, salespeople, and more. They've disrupted an old industry by building incredible software and designing mind-blowing events, revolutionising how people and ideas come together to change the world.
Useful links:
Collision images: https://www.flickr.com/photos/collisionconf/
Collision speaker lineup: https://collisionconf.com/speakers
Collision schedule: https://collisionconf.com/schedule
