In 2024, DoubleLine Capital CEO Jeffrey Gundlach questioned the validity of state unemployment numbers claiming they were hard to believe. During an interview on “Making Money with Charles Payne, the Bond King expressed his skepticism over the reports of 88% of U.S. states showing increased unemployment in the last six months, while the national unemployment remained stable at a very low level. The U.S. unemployment rate was reported to have unexpectedly fallen to 3.7% in December due to a significant decrease in the jobless rate among teenagers. Gundlach, however, argued that states with decreasing unemployment such as Texas, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, and Wyoming would not be able to counteract the increasing unemployment in states like Florida, Illinois, California, and New York. Expressing his concern over the current economic indicators, he drew parallels between the current market situation and the inflation fight in the late 1970s to early ’80s. Gundlach also predicted that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell would cut rates in the coming year due to the economy’s current stable condition.