News from Washington reveal that Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin on Sunday said the alarming U.S. unemployment rate reported by the government on Friday may worsen due to the coronavirus lockdowns.
“The reported numbers are probably going to get worse before they get better,” Mnuchin said in a recent interview with Fox News Sunday program.
According to Department of Labor, the unemployment rate surged to 14.7% in April.
This rate overshadowed the post-World War Two record of 10.8% reached in November 1982.
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Mnuchin hinted that the White House was talking about more fiscal strategies to ease the economic meltdown due to the pandemic. However, Mnuchin mentioned that the federal government is not making plans to bail out states that were “poorly” managed.
In a bid to dowse tensions, The White House is planning for a payroll tax cut, he said.