WH Chief of Staff Ron Klain: US Not in Recession (Newsmax)
By Jeffrey Rodack | Thursday, 03 November 2022 11:54 AM EDT
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain insisted Thursday the U.S. is not in a recession.
He made his comments during an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," where he was asked what the U.S. is doing to prepare for a possible recession.
"Look, we are not in a recession," Klain said. "I want to be really, really clear on that. We just had this morning come out the fact that unemployment claims remain at a historical low. We're at a 50-year low on unemployment overall, and all-time low on Hispanic unemployment.
"We've created more jobs in two years than any administration in history. And we saw the stock market just finish its biggest month in 40 years. And even with the fallback with the market yesterday, the market closed higher than any day – any one day – in Donald Trump's four-year presidency. So, the economy is growing. It's strong. It's creating jobs."
Klain said the White House's mission is to "continue that kind of economic growth, continue the job creation, continue to move the economy forward, and to tackle the biggest problem we have in the economy right now, which is inflation — bring down prices of everyday things that really hit people hard."
Reuters reported that the number of Americans filing new unemployment claims unexpectedly dropped last week
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 217,000 for the week ending Oct. 29, the Labor Department said on Thursday, according to Reuters.