Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said Friday the nation’s employment picture will improve significantly once residential housing construction rebounds, The Associated Press reports.
Buffett spoke to Bloomberg Television Friday morning as the Labor Department released a weaker-than-expected monthly jobs report. He said the report shows the economy is still a long way off from where it should be, but Buffett remains optimistic about the recovery and sees no danger of a second recession.
“I would bet very heavily against that,” Buffett said. “How fast the recovery will come I don’t know, but I see nothing that indicates any kind of a double dip.”
Most of Buffett’s comments were focused on the long-term outlook. Buffett said he expects unemployment to fall to about 6 percent within a few years, and the 2.5 million jobs lost in the recession will be replaced. The June unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent.
The chairman and CEO of the conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said he thinks people will be surprised how quickly employment improves once the excess houses are bought and normal levels of construction resume.
