Labor secretary: The quicker we follow coronavirus guidelines, the quicker the economy will bounce back
Weekly unemployment claims hit 6.6 million; Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia reacts.
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Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia told "Bill Hemmer Reports" Thursday that skyrocketing unemployment numbers due to self-imposed shutdowns of businesses and commerce caused by the coronavirus pandemic were "especially difficult" to stomach.
"We had such a strong economy for such a long time with record low unemployment and rising wages," said Scalia, son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. "So it makes it especially jarring and especially difficult. It is a little different than past bad economic numbers that we are seeing because it's self-imposed."
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Scalia added that although the massive slump in the economy is happening under highly abnormal circumstances, it doesn't change the pain millions of Americans are feeling.
"I don't want to speculate where we are," he said of employment figures. "We will put out an economic report tomorrow but that will show just the first part of March so we won't really have a feel for the impact of the stay-at-home orders."
However, Scalia said the Labor Department has issued more tenable rules for unpaid leave and similar benefits during the crisis, and added that that President Trump's approval of direct payments to most Americans should ease the pain a little.
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Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has said he hopes the checks will be in the mail within a few weeks.
Host Bill Hemmer asked Scalia whether the economy will rebound quickly (a so-called "V-shaped recovery") or whether any recovery will be more drawn out and therefore worse for the long-term economy.
"I think the V is possible but it depends substantially on how seriously people take the guidance that the president and health authorities are giving on [social] distancing," said Scalia.
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