heidi shierholz is a senior economist with the economic policy institute. et's start in the big picture. how bad are the unemployment numbers right now? heidi: it's like nothing i've ever seen before. in the last six weeks, on the order of 30 million people have applied for unemployment insurance. that is more than one in six workers in this country. and to just like stack it up with the most recent terrible recession that we had, the great recession. what we're seeing now is more than five times as bad as the worst stretch of the great recession. soledad: can you describe what's happening to the economy and do you predict that, hey, a lot of these jobs that have gone away, actually, once everything opens up again, those jobs will come right back? heidi: some of them will come back. i am worried that many of them will not. i am worried that we didn't get relief to businesses quickly enough to have them be able to hang on and that we'll see a lot of businesses facing bankruptcy. and in that case, those jobs will come back, but they're not going to be the same

heidi shierholz, former chief economist at the u.s. department of labor earned the obama administration from 2013 to 2017. now with the economic policy institute. thank you for joining us this morning. >> thanks for having me. host: wanted to talk about the impact of the pandemic on workers. what do you see? >> it's pretty grim. it's really bad right now. so as of mid april, the official unemployment rate had jumped to 14.7%. but because of some misclassification and undercounting of people who had lost their jobs as a result of the virus, i think that a more accurate description of where we were in mid april is more like a 23.5% unemployment rate. and we've had another five weeks of deterioration since then so it's pretty grim. really sachs which has a good economics research shop, they are forecasting that the unemployment rate average 30% in may and june. so it's going to get worse before it gets better. it's pretty grim for workers out there right now. host: phone numbers at the bottom of the screen. if you lost your job or were la

later a discussion of the pandemics impact on essential workers with heidi shierholz. host: on this wednesday, may 27, the u.s. house is back in washington today, two days of debate and voting. on the intelligence and surveillance act. members will be allowed for the first time to vote by proxy. several dozen democrats will others vote for them on the floor today. there is talk of a growing stimulus and economic aid bill and all of this as the nation marks that grim milestone, nearly 100,000 deaths in the u.s. now from coronavirus. your thoughts on that figure and what is next for this country. if you live in the eastern or central time zones, call 202-748-8000. mountain and pacific, 202-748-8001. you can also send us a text at 202-748-8003. you can also post to twitter and facebook. with thoseis morning numbers courtesy of johns hopkins university. the total number of confirmed cases in this country approaching 1.7 million. on the right side of the screen, there is that figure, the death 98,929, 98,000 929. nearly 100 thousand americans have died. a special pullout on