Shirley Leung: 'Recession Has Probably Already Started'

Virus Outbreak Business Fallout — A man walks past a shop, open for business in the North End neighborhood of Boston, but only allowing five customers at a time, Saturday, March 21, 2020.

Hannah Uebele is a producer for Under the Radar with Callie Crossley and previously worked as associate producer for Boston Public Radio. She graduated from Tufts University with a B.S. in English and Environmental Studies. She's a proud Delawarean but has found herself saying "wicked" more and more often, so the Bostonian metamorphosis is well underway.Contact: hannah_uebele@wgbh.org

March 23, 2020

Updated August 07, 2023

Boston Globe business columnist Shirley Leung joined Boston Public Radio on Friday to speak about how the economy at a state and national level is being affected by the novel coronavirus.

"A week ago when we were talking, not a lot of people were forecasting a global or U.S. recession," she said. "But now everybody is saying our recession has probably already started."

Layoffs are just the beginning of the economic downturn, Leung said.

"The restaurants are laying off, the hotels are now laying off. Hotels are actually closing in Boston, which is just utterly unheard of, because there's no business travel and everybody's hunkered down," she said. "We've never experienced a downturn like this where the government is basically forcing businesses to force down temporarily in the name of public health."