Top Trump economic adviser Kevin Hassett estimates that next month’s unemployment rate could go even higher than the numbers reported Friday, possibly hitting “around 20%.”
Hassett, in an interview with CNN, called Friday’s record unemployment numbers “heartbreaking,” but he was buoyed that so many who had lost their jobs thought they would return to work, saying it “surprised the heck” out of him.
“Almost everybody that is, like, a new unemployed person, like 18 million of them, said that they expected to be rehired by their employer,” he said, adding that “prophecies like that can be self-fulfilling.”
He continued: “The fact that all these folks are saying, you know, ‘We expect that we’re going to get back to work,’ means that there’s a chance, at least, that we have sort of this positive equilibrium where people are optimistic because other people are optimistic.”
The economy lost 20.5 million jobs in April, the Labor Department reported, as states shut down businesses deemed nonessential in a bid to slow the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
The national unemployment rate surged to 14.7% in April, up from 4.4% in March.
Speaking to Fox News as the figures were announced, President Trump said that the job numbers were “totally expected” and that he would return the economy to its pre-pandemic state. “I’ll bring it back,” Trump said. “Even the Democrats aren’t blaming me for that.”
