Sunday, April 5, 2009

Bill Gross: Job Cuts Will Get Worse Before They Improve

Bond guru Bill Gross sees the unemployment rate jumping to double digits before it improves, and even then the economy will evolve into something we haven't seen before. "Perhaps the more staggering number, in my opinion, is the five million jobs lost over the last 15 months," Gross told CNBC. "That's a lot of jobs, and a lot of jobs to recoup. Obama's goal, of course, is three and a half million jobs, either regained or saved. We've got a long way to go."

PIMCO's founder and former chief executive acknowledged that March job losses were in line with expectations. And he says the situtation will likely get worse before it gets better.

"We're going to have a positive quarter at some point in the second half," he predicted. "Those that would look for bottoms in the economy or the stock market, though, I think are really focusing on the wrong thing, because that implies that we're going to return to what is a normal stasis. We think that's incorrect. We think that unemployment will go to 10 percent before it returns to 8."