White House economic experts expect increase in unemployment rate
Last week it was confirmed that the U.S. economy suffered its biggest labor market shock on record last month and now experts expect that number to increase.
Last month the government confirmed that the United States unemployment rate had hit 14.7%, a level not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. A total of 20.5 million jobs have been wiped out since the coronavirus pandemic hit the nation.
On Sunday night, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told “Face the Nation” that he expects the unemployment rate to climb from 14.7% to 20% during the months of May and June even though many states are slowly reopening the economy.
Job losses spiralling due to coronavirus
The next two months the United States should see a high point for job losses breaking more records in the history of this country, “right now more than 30 million people are getting initial claims from unemployment insurance and that’s the biggest negative shock to the jobs that we’ve seen since World War II,” said Hassett.
“I think we will climb up towards 20% by June,” added Hassett because he believes the economy is going to get worse before it stabilizes. The White House economic adviser hwoever believes things can be turned around for working Americans during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We understand why the economy is slowing down and we expect that we can reverse it,” said Hassett who praised measures like the Paycheck Protection Programs (PPP) which was established by the $2 trillion CARES Act appropriated by Congress to provide loans to small businesses and to unemployed Americans so they can get through the outbreak.