Stephen Moore says unemployment numbers worse than headline figures

Economist Stephen Moore signaled Tuesday that the U.S. unemployment rate — estimated to be just under 15 percent — is actually worse than numbers indicate, as the country struggles to steady itself amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

“The unemployment numbers are actually much worse than that headline number because they weren’t counting millions and millions of workers who have been furloughed … so we’re probably closer to 20 percent unemployment rate right now,” Moore, who’s a member of the White House coronavirus economic task force, told Hill.TV.

Moore noted that the rate, which is the highest it has been since the Great Depression could easily climb to 25 percent, the record unemployment rate. 

“I think this summer is going to be brutally bad, it’s going to be really bad in terms of businesses just trying to get their feet back on the ground, they’ll be very slow to hiring workers back,” Moore said, adding that the country should start to see an economic rebound by the end of summer or beginning of fall.

However, Moore said that that a fourth quarter rebound was contingent on whether or not states continue to open their economies in the coming weeks.

The U.S. economy shed 20.5 millions jobs in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) recent report. Per the report, the unemployment rate went from 4.4 percent in March to 14.7 percent by the end of April. The one-month spike in unemployment was the largest ever recorded by the BLS.