A record 20.5 million US jobs were lost in April and unemployment reached 14.7%.
5 min read
Larry Kudlow, director of the U.S. National Economic Council, acknowledged in stark terms Sunday the hardship quantified by the recently released April employment report, but attempted to put a positive spin on the record job-loss numbers, arguing that the havoc wreaked by the coronavirus pandemic might not be permanent.
“Inside the numbers is a glimmer of hope,” Kudlow said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday morning, adding that “80% of it was furloughs and temporary layoffs. That, by the way, doesn’t assure that you will go back to a job, but it says strongly that the accord between the worker and the business is still intact. I think, hopefully, that has something to do with the $3 trillion of assistance, including the payroll protection plan.”
But as states around the country embark on the first stages of economic reopening plans, Kudlow cautioned that their impact on the economy may not be immediate and predicted at least one more round of grim numbers to come.
“I don’t want to sugarcoat it because I think the numbers for May are going to be also very difficult,” he told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos. “It’s going to take a while for the reopening to have an impact.”
Kudlow’s comments about the coronavirus, and its economic impact, have evolved over the course of the past few months. In February, Kudlow told CNBC the virus was “contained … pretty close to airtight” and did not believe the situation would result in “economic tragedy.” He later defended the statement by saying he was only “as good as the facts are” and that “at the time, a lot of people felt at the time that the flu was worse than the virus.”
Then, in late March, after the administration “changed our whole posture and our whole strategy and we’ve gone full bore,” Kudlow predicted on “This Week” that the then-recently signed third stimulus bill was “going to give a tremendous amount of resources to get us through what we still believe is going to be a question of weeks and months.” However, the director acknowledged the relief legislation, topping $2 trillion, “may not be perfect.”
On Friday, in the wake of an April employment report that found a record 20.5 million jobs were lost and unemployment reached 14.7%, Kudlow predicted that “the economic and jobs numbers are going to continue to deteriorate.”
“Regarding the next month or two, which you’re really going to transition into the reopening of the economy, who’s to say the numbers will not get worse,” he said in a Fox Business interview, later adding, “I don’t know if it’s as bad as it gets. I don’t think this pandemic contraction has yet fully run its course.”
This is a developing news story. Please check back for updates.
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