The closing down of the U.S. economy because of the coronavirus pandemic is a shock of historic proportions that will seemingly push the national unemployment charge to 16% or higher this month and require more stimulus to ensure a robust bounce, a White House economic adviser stated Sunday.
Lockdowns across the U.S. to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus have dented the economy, shuttering businesses and sending unemployment skyrocketing.
A record 26.5 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits since mid-March, and retail sales, home building, and consumer confidence have all cratered.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office foretells U.S. gross domestic product will shrink at almost a 40% annual rate in Q2, with unemployment cresting at 16% in the third quarter. But even next year, the CBO sees the jobless rate still averaging above 10%.
Before the pandemic hit, the U.S. jobless rate had been hovering at a 50-year low of 3.5%.
The U.S. Congress has already approved $3 trillion in coronavirus reduction in a show of bipartisan support for laid-off workers and an economy in free fall.
Policymakers are actually poised for a battle over federal support to state and local governments whose budgets have been shattered by a drop in tax revenue even as they’ve had to take extraordinary steps during a pandemic that has triggered a U.S. death count approaching 55,000.
New York City needs $7.4 billion in federal aid to offset economic losses from the coronavirus, its mayor stated Sunday.
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