The upcoming jobs report will show the United States is under the largest unemployment rate because of the economic shutdown since the Second World War, but once the bounce back starts, the United States is "likely to grow sharply," White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said Thursday.
"We will be looking at more bad news before things start to turn," Hassett said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "The initial claims data that came out today accumulated to 30 million unemployed folks. What will happen is that data will get turned into the jobs report and that jobs report will show an unemployment rate that will be something like 19%. That will be the biggest unemployment rate we have had since the Second World War."
The equity markets "have done a nice job," said Hassett, and that will "get us over the hump."
"The U.S. is likely to grow sharply," he said. "That's a very optimistic outlook and I hope it's true. But if it does come true, that will happen because of all of the sound policies, and on a bipartisan basis."
Because the economy has been shut down, he added, the second quarter will show "unprecedented negative news," but that could change when the virus is under control.
"Soon, I think pretty quickly we will see that the worst will be behind us," said Hassett. "The data, like looking in the rearview mirror, it will get worse before it gets better."
Meanwhile, the White House and lawmakers are "taking a pause" before moving on to a fourth stimulus package said Hassett.
"There are states all around the country that are starting to turn on the lights," he said. "So how quickly are we able to get back up to speed and so on? It's probably very soon and very shortly, we will have an idea of whether we need to extend the current existing things or move on to new ideas."
However, Hassett admitted that he's worried about the red ink and debt that is building while the country responds to the emergency situation.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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