White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett on Sunday said the U.S. is staring at unemployment rates during the coronavirus pandemic that will rival those seen during the Great Depression.
“Make no mistake — it’s a really grave situation,” Mr. Hassett said on ABC’s “This Week,” while expressing hope that lawmakers can work toward a quick “v-shaped” bounceback.
“This is the biggest negative shock that our economy, I think, has ever seen,” said Mr. Hassett, a former chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Trump. “We’re going to be looking at an unemployment rate that approaches rates that we saw during the Great Depression.”
More than 26 million Americans have filed unemployment claims over the last five weeks — a number that translates to roughly one-sixth of the U.S. workforce.
The peak unemployment rate during the Great Depression was roughly 25%.
