ATLANTA (AP) – Returning her job should have been a relief for Leesa Huddleston.
A kitchen worker at an Indiana casino, Huddleston returned in June after a three-month furlough caused by the coronavirus. She felt fortunate to no longer be among the roughly 30 million Americans who remain unemployed and now struggle with abruptly reduced unemployment benefits.
However, the return of her job hardly ended in Huddleston’s financial problems. Her employer, her income shrinking due to the loss of customers, cut her schedule to four days a week. That meant a drop of $ 300 in monthly payments – money that, along with overtime, had allowed Huddleston to pay rent, a car payment and other necessities. Now she will have to decide what to stop paying as she goes through her savings.
“I go from day to day,” said Huddleston, 59. “I treat it better some days than others.”
Huddleston belongs to a category of Americans who are largely overwhelmed at a time when unemployment is high and a critically important $ 600-a-week federal unemployment benefit has just passed: People who still have jobs but whose financial struggles yet have escalated in the face of the pandemic.
Some have sustained cuts or have extended their hours. Others are temporarily furloughed – without paying. Many simply feel intimidated by the fear that their job may disappear at any moment or that their employer will run out of business.
They are caught in the grip of a pandemic that has plummeted the economy, forces lockdowns that close businesses and leave many people worried about infection to travel, shop, gather in crowds or eat out – or by state or locations do not. Yet their predicament, as well as the wave of redundancies that triggered the virus, speak to the dire impact that the virus has on the U.S. workforce.
They do not provide good things for the economy, said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Institute for Economic Policy, a progressive think tank that notes that anxious consumers, whether they have a job or not, typically cut back on spending, the primary driver of the economy.
“The insecurity of what has happened to people around them can cause people to save as much as possible,” she said. “And that can reduce spending in the sense that ‘I do not know what happens next.’ ”
Think of Ellen Boudreau, a 59-year-old accountant in Manchester, New Hampshire. She has become a self-described “misery” because her working hours were reduced after a six-week layoff and her husband, David, a lab, had his schedule cut to four days for several months – and was subsequently furloughed every other week July.
Her husband wants a new television to replace a projection model at her home. Boudreau, however, bounced back. She worries in part about other expenses, including the possibility of a costly trip to the vet for her 15-year-old Shih Tzu.
“He really wants the TV,” she said. ‘Normally I would not have thought of that. We no longer have the security of a job. ”
In Atlanta, Sirnorris Mitchell was forced to drop his savings to pay for diabetes medication after his working hours were also reduced. Mitchell had sought to regain his independence with the help of Homes of Light, an organization for homeless services affiliated with United Way. Then the coronavirus eliminated its part-time office job.
After first working full time this spring with a home and office cleaning company, Mitchell, 50, now gets barely a few hours a week.
“When all this junk got up and they started closing businesses and I couldn’t find a job the way I wanted, it had a big impact on me,” he said. “And then when you have diabetes and stuff, it’s hard to treat everything at once.”
The financial pressure of the still deployment comes against the backdrop of a catastrophic toll of layoffs. The number of laid-off Americans applying for unemployment benefits is 20 million weeks above 1 million. All told, about 30 million people are out of work, the government says.
On Friday, the government said the economy added 1.8 million jobs in July, a reversal of the gains of the previous two months and evidence that the rebellious coronavirus is weakening the rent and any economic rebound. The hiring of the past three months has lost just over 40% of jobs after the review by pandemic-induced.
The number of Americans who have reported on pay cuts or reduced working hours is not so definitive. But federal data, combined with economic research, puts the figure at about 11 million. In July, more than 7 million Americans reported working part-time because their hours were cut – far more than the 2.8 million who said so in February – the government said.
And from March to June, companies reduced the salaries of an additional 6.8 million workers, economists at the University of Chicago and the Federal Reserve said in a study that relied on data from payroll clerk ADP.
Overall, about half of Americans were interviewed by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released in July say she as someone in her household has lost some income since the pandemic hit. That includes 27% who say someone has been fired, 33% who report someone who has experienced a reduction in hours, 24% who say someone has been fired unpaid and 29% who say someone has been fired or had reduced salaries.
During recessions, employers have typically avoided cutting wages for fear of rising morale. The wage cuts during this downturn underscore the depth of the economic toll.
Gould, the EPI economist, noted that workers’ wages rose significantly in the years before the pandemic, as the demand for labor went into a growing economy. However, all gains in bargaining power have probably been lost.
“Workers who now have their jobs are, ‘I’m going to keep this job,’ she said. ” I will not do anything to rock the boat. I will not ask for a raise. I will not talk about difficulties. ‘”
Meanwhile, fears about job security have reached a higher pitch for some. Since graduating in March and returning to work, Steve Ward, a mattress salesman at Macy’s flagship store in Manhattan, has shown off three of his colleagues.
Ward, who has worked at Macy’s for 35 years, is worried that his job could be next, as the pandemic has shrunk the number of customers in his department by roughly half.
“I’m worried about myself, the future,” said Ward, 58, who was hoping to retire at 65. ‘In the back of my mind I think about what retail looks like. What’s going to happen to Macy’s? This does not go away unless there is a cure. ”
In Shelbyville, Indiana, Huddleston’s reduced hours have forced her to become even more spooky. A trade union, UNITE HERE !, helped her pay $ 734 a month when she was out of work. To meet her expenses now, she is deepening in the unemployment support she received during her flight. A food pantry helps with shopping. She throws half of a sandwich or other leftovers away from the lunch provided by the casino and often eats macaroni and cheese.
However, she worries that it will not be enough to keep her solid soluble.
“I just pray to God to help me with that,” she said.
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AP Writer Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire, and AP Retail Writer Anne D’Innocenzio in New York contributed to this report.
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