{"id":357,"date":"2023-12-14T17:45:27","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T17:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/vendingone\/?p=357"},"modified":"2023-12-14T17:45:27","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T17:45:27","slug":"a-torrent-of-job-losses-threatens-to-overwhelm-the-u-s-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/a-torrent-of-job-losses-threatens-to-overwhelm-the-u-s-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"A Torrent of Job Losses Threatens to Overwhelm the U.S. Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New filings for unemployment benefits rose 30 percent last week amid cutbacks and shutdowns over the coronavirus crisis.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an early sign of the coronavirus pandemic\u2019s devastating impact on American workers, the Labor Department on Thursday reported a 30 percent increase in unemployment claims last week, one of the largest spikes on record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The surge \u2014 281,000 new claims \u2014 reflects a crushing new reality: Any hopes that businesses could keep their staffs largely intact have quickly evaporated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI started laying people off this Monday, not knowing how bad it was,\u201d said Barry Rosenberg, founder of Vending One, a Los Angeles company that stocks and maintains vending machines and self-serve kiosks in malls, office complexes, jails, schools and casinos. \u201cOn Tuesday, we started restricting hours. By next Monday, I don\u2019t know that there\u2019ll be any work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jon Blomer, who services accounts and refills those machines, was one of the first to lose his job. \u201cThere\u2019s not enough hours to go around, and everyone\u2019s been there longer,\u201d said Mr. Blomer, 33, who has worked at Vending One for a year. \u201cI understand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Job losses have become so sensitive that the Trump administration is asking state labor officials to delay releasing the precise number of unemployment claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an email sent Wednesday and shared with The New York Times, the Labor Department instructed state officials to do nothing more than \u201cprovide information using generalities to describe claims levels (very high, large increase)\u201d until the department releases the total number of national claims next Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The message noted that the data was \u201cmonitored closely by policymakers and financial markets to determine appropriate actions in light of fast-changing economic conditions\u201d and should be closely held until the Labor Department\u2019s report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To stanch the torrent of job losses, officials in Washington are racing to design a trillion-dollar stimulus. Senate Republicans put forward a blueprint on Thursday that includes loans to big corporations and small businesses, large corporate tax cuts, and checks as large as $1,200 per adult to individuals earning less than $99,000 a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Trump said he would be open to having the government take equity stakes in companies that require federal help. But Democrats are pushing to direct more assistance to workers and families rather than to corporations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, as employers at global conglomerates and kitchen-table offices anxiously grapple with the economy\u2019s partial shutdown, tens of thousands of laid-off workers like Mr. Blomer are jamming government websites and phone lines to apply for unemployment insurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some states, overwhelmed systems collapsed under the weight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was so frustrating,\u201d said Tim Tilley, who was laid off from his kitchen job at an Olive Garden in Ohio on Tuesday. For four hours that day and eight hours on Wednesday, he tried to file a claim. The website crashed repeatedly \u2014 after three attempts, he was locked out. He called dozens of times but was bumped from prompt to prompt, only to end up at the original automated message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rules for unemployment benefits vary across the country. States follow federal guidelines but administer their own programs. Each state uses its own formula to decide what percentage of weekly wages will be covered (50 percent, for example) and for how long (generally 26 weeks).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emergency legislation that Mr. Trump signed into law on Wednesday would increase funding for states with surges in claims and pare back eligibility restrictions like waiting times and job search requirements. Although the rules are shifting, policy experts said, workers who have been quarantined or furloughed without pay should qualify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, many workers could be left out entirely. Some states do not cover part-time workers, and many others have made it difficult for temporary workers to qualify. Gig workers are also often ineligible because they are typically considered self- employed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Maryland, for example, many applicants are confused about whether they would qualify for benefits if they became sick from the coronavirus and had to take time off or quit. The answer: No. Self-quarantines don\u2019t qualify, either. But if a business had to shut down or lay workers off because of the virus, they could qualify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nicholas Javier, a restaurant server at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, is hoping he will. On Monday, he received a text indicating that he should not show up the next day. The hotel restaurant where he worked was being shut down, and he and his fellow servers were no longer needed. Nearly all of the hotel\u2019s roughly 140 housekeepers were sent home as well, said Mr. Javier, a union shop steward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Javier had worked at the hotel about six years and earned $600 to $700 a week during the winter, typically a slow season. He said he and his co-workers got word of deep cuts two weeks ago, after which his hours were scaled back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy anxiety level is through the roof,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For businesses, the economic effects can ripple out in helter-skelter fashion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the City Center Investment Corporation, a real estate development company revitalizing downtown Allentown, Pa., the property management and construction arms are all operating but the restaurants and hotels in its portfolio are dark, said J.B. Reilly, the president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost business owners are right now trying to make decisions to allow them to operate in the long run and make smart decisions for themselves, their businesses and their employees,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Renaissance Allentown Hotel, one of City Center\u2019s properties and part of the Marriott chain, is laying off virtually all of its more than 100 workers at 5 p.m. on Friday. Charles Reece, the general manager, is one of a handful of employees who will stay on for a couple of weeks to wrap up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI suppose I will be applying for unemployment benefits,\u201d Mr. Reece said. \u201cI haven\u2019t even thought about myself, because there is so much to do in closing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Planning ahead is nearly impossible, employers and workers say, without knowing how long the crisis will last or how much government assistance might be available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many owners are facing the choices that Robert Burns confronted when he thought about what the pandemic meant for the future of his company \u2014 and its 200 workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt first, we were trying to figure out a plan where nobody\u2019s income would be affected,\u201d said Mr. Burns, one of the founders and the president of Night Shift Brewing, a family-owned brewery and taproom in Everett, Mass. \u201cAs things quickly deteriorated, we realized that wasn\u2019t feasible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He furloughed 170 of his employees, saying he would maintain their health benefits while they collect unemployment benefits. The founders eliminated their own salaries to finance the plan. He hopes to bring all the workers back soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still a really tough call \u2014 they definitely won\u2019t be making the same money they were last week,\u201d he said, \u201cbut it\u2019s the<\/p>\n\n\n\n

best we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Nick Crews, chief executive of Crews Hospitality, which operates airport concessions around the country, the numbers were stark: 34 outlets at four airports with roughly 1,000 employees and sales that are down about 70 percent from last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He started this week with a few dozen layoffs and furloughs and reduced hours at the gift shops, restaurants and newsstands, and he expects several dozen more by Monday. He also sent requests to the airports and transportation authorities for a rent reprieve and permission to delay some required refurbishments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every morning, he holds a crisis management meeting at 6:30 from his home office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To Mr. Crews, hanging on to three-quarters of his staff would be an optimistic outcome. He fears that without some kind of government intervention, he would have to scale back by half, and that half the employers in his industry could fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a leader, I\u2019m trying to be positive,\u201d he said. \u201cI trust we can get out of this. But it is an emotional roller coaster.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Los Angeles, Mr. Rosenberg of Vending One watched on a monitor as sales parachuted toward zero. On Thursday morning, he got a phone call telling him that Las Vegas casinos were closing for 30 days and that he essentially had 24 hours to retrieve the money from his machines before the doors were locked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His warehouse is full of precut packaged sandwiches and candy bars, but he has nowhere to put them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can\u2019t sleep, I can\u2019t eat, I\u2019m walking in circles in the middle of the night,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s like being in a car accident in slow motion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New filings for unemployment benefits rose 30 percent last week amid cutbacks and shutdowns over the coronavirus crisis. In an early sign of the coronavirus pandemic\u2019s devastating impact on American workers, the Labor Department on Thursday reported a 30 percent increase in unemployment claims last week, one of the largest spikes on record. The surge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions\/359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}