May 6, 2020      3:21 PM

Business group cautions Texas has not seen the worst economic numbers yet

The state may not see economic numbers like the fourth quarter of 2019 until 2022, and that assumes there isn’t a second wave of the virus

Sobering news from the economic front was presented this morning on a biweekly media call held by the Texas Business Leadership Council.

Jason Schenker, President of Prestige Economics, said to expect the upcoming unemployment rate announcement for Texas to rise over the short term. March figures released last month showed the US unemployment rate at 4.4% and the Texas rate at 4.7%. Expect the April rates which will be released soon to be more like 17.4% nationally and 10.5% in Texas, he said.

Current national rates could be as high as 21.2% as of May 2, with Texas at 17.4%. Schenker pointed out that services were leading unemployment and would lag during any recovery.

By Jon Fisher

Copyright May 06, 2020, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved