‘Scary Time’ for American Middle Class as Office Jobs Disappear – By Reade Pickert (Bloomberg) / April 22 2020
- Layoffs spread to U.S. offices after hospitality saw first hit
- Even survivors take salary cuts, which could hamper recovery
The new year arrived with a new job for Tyler Simon, who had high hopes for 2020. They didn’t last long.
“Once Covid-19 hit, things went from bad to worse really quick,” said Simon, a father of two in Summerfield, North Carolina.
A marketing specialist with a sales-training company, Simon lost his job along with several colleagues on April 7 -– less than two weeks into a state-wide lockdown to counter the pandemic. He says many who survived the firm’s layoffs saw their pay cut by 10%.
That’s happening all over the country.
A tsunami of job losses, which began among workers in restaurants, hotels and factories, is now reaching the offices of white-collar America — where analysts and engineers find themselves among the rapidly swelling ranks of the unemployed.
Within a month, some 22 million people filed for jobless benefits, in what’s shaping up to be the worst rout for U.S. labor since the Great Depression. Data due Thursday is forecast to show another 4.5 million joined the line last week.
Continue to article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-22/-scary-time-for-american-middle-class-as-office-jobs-disappear
