Almost 50% Job Loss Due To COVID-19 In US Could Be Permanent

Almost half of the Americans who confessed that one of their family members lost their job due to COVID-19 pandemic think that it could be permanent, indicating that as many as 10 million Americans may have to find a new employer soon.

These are the results of an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. During the research, the team interviewed American families and discovered that 47 percent of families whose members lost a job due to coronavirus outbreak think that it is gone forever and will probably never come back.

Out of all the Americans interviewed, nearly half of them said that either they or someone in their family lost a job due to the coronavirus pandemic. The loss of a massive number of jobs has dragged the U.S. into one of the worst economic slowdowns in years.

As compared to the results of the same poll conducted in April 2020, 78 percent of such American families thought that the job loss is temporary. However, the numbers turned around and now nearly half of the people believe that it could be permanent.

Among the people interviews, nearly 33 percent confessed working on reduced hours, while 27 percent said that someone has been laid off from work. Nearly 29 percent of those said that their pay had been reduced and 24 percent confessed having taken time off from work without any salary or daily wage.

The increasing COVID-19 infections in the U.S. is further expected to increase the job cuts despite the officials trying to reopen the economy across several states. Reopening after lockdown led to a dramatic surge in coronavirus cases in the U.S. across several regions, including Florida and Arizona.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to go uncontrolled in the country, the Democrats and the Republicans seem to be divided over the priorities. While 9 out of 10 democrats believe that controlling the coronavirus situation in the U.S. should be a priority over the economy at the moment, Republicans are more or less equally divided between the two choices.

The economists say that the consequences could be even worse if the COVID-19 outbreak intensifies even further in the U.S., leading to the shutdown of businesses again.

“I think a second wave would undermine public confidence and might make for significantly longer recovery and weaker recovery,” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell had said in May.