Fed's Powell warns unemployment could reach Depression-level 25 percent

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Sunday warned that the nation's unemployment rate could soar to 25 percent during the worst of the coronavirus crisis, though he said the economy should recover more quickly than during the Great Depression, when joblessness last reached those levels.

"Those numbers sound about right for what the peak may be," Powell said on CBS' "60 Minutes" after reporter Scott Pelley asked whether unemployment could reach 20 percent or even 25 percent.

His remarks came just days after the central bank released a survey showing that one in five American workers lost their jobs in March - including almost 40 percent of those in lower-income households.