White House considers more coronavirus aid as jobs picture worsens

“Let’s take the next few weeks,” Mnuchin told the “Fox News Sunday” program.

Since early March, Congress has passed bills allocating $3 trillion to combat the pandemic, including taxpayer money for individuals and companies to blunt an economic impact that includes an unemployment rate to 14.7% in April after U.S. job losses are unseen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

“We just want to make sure that before we jump back in and spend another few trillion of taxpayers’ money that we do it carefully,” Mnuchin said. “We’ve been very clear that we’re not going to do things just to bail out states that were poorly managed.”

Pressure for further action may mount as the near-term economic picture worsens.

On CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Hassett said the U.S. unemployment rate could rise to somewhere “north of 20 percent” in May or June before the economy moves into what administration officials have said will be a robust recovery in late 2020.

The April unemployment rate announced by the Labor Department undercounts some out-of-work Americans, economists say.

Asked if the country could now be facing a “real” unemployment rate of close to 25 percent, Mnuchin replied: “We could be.” Such a rate also includes people who have lost jobs and are not actively seeking employment and people considered underemployed.