Is China enjoying a quiet chuckle over the Schadenfreude? The economic slump in the United States of America has been worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s. If the commerce department’s signal in Washington this week is any indication, the longest economic expansion in US history officially came to an end on Wednesday; the economy has shrunk at an annual rate of 4.8 per cent in the first three months of this year.

Considering the timeline, the US economy had suffered a crippling blow in parallel to the coronavirus convulsions that jolted China since December … and before it spread across the globe. A substantial segment of the US economy had shut down in March in an effort to contain the virus, compelling 26 million people to file for unemployment benefits and wiping out a decade of gains in terms of employment generation.

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Visuals of the queues for job benefits are explicit enough. Statistics are grim, when not a reflection of the government’s performance, if not mishandling of the pandemic. Predictions of the senior economic adviser to the White House are not the forebodings of the Jeremiah, albeit unpalatable to the likes of Donald Trump in an election year.

The gross domestic product (GDP) ~ the widest measure of the economy ~ could fall at an annualized rate of 30 per cent in the next quarter. Goldman Sachs expects a 15 per cent unemployment rate in the US by mid-year, up from the current rate of 4.4 per cent.

The fall is the sharpest quarterly decline in GDP since the end of 2008 when the economy contracted by an annualized rate of 8.4 per cent. But on current forecasts the drop-off could soon rival the economic collapse of the Great Depression of 1932 when it shrank by 13 per cent over the year.

Most of the shutdowns happened towards the end of the first three months of the year. Fears that there could be a contraction of about 30 per cent, which will be “by far the worst quarter in history”, are dangerously real.

The joblessness, that began with layoffs in the leather and hospitality sectors, has extended throughout the economy ~ from manufacturing and retail industries to what they call “white-collar redoubts” like business services. This would mean that it will take longer for the labour market to recover.

“The shock is unique because the cause is unique. It’s such a different animal from anything that we’ve ever seen,” is the high-minded lament of Diane Swonk, the chief economist at Grant Thornton. The total number of layoffs is now nearly 34 million since the shutdowns began seven weeks ago. Coronavirus has wrecked the US economy.

The next occupant of the White House will succeed to a depleted inheritance. Six months before the polls, the thought must be direly unnerving to both Donald Trump and Joe Biden.