Unemployment Offices Overwhelmed After Mass Layoffs Amid Coronavirus Outbreak, Motor Companies Temporarily Shut Down Production

Unemployment offices are overwhelmed with new clients as companies and businesses shut down and layoff their employees amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The country’s economy is taking a major hit as the rise of the #coronavirus COVID-19 travels the globe, knocking the scale of unemployment to a point that hasn’t been seen since the Great Recession. Just on Monday alone, more than 15,0000 people applied for unemployment benefits in New Jersey. In Connecticut, almost 8,000 people filed, and in Ohio, more than 45,000 applications were turned in to receive benefits. Several other states, including Rhode Island, have also been impacted, Politico reports.

On Thursday and Friday, NPR/Marist conducted a poll that showed 18 percent of households have already reported someone being laid off or having had their work hours reduced due to the pandemic. Twenty-one percent of those layoffs have happened to women versus men with 16 percent. Josh Bivens, director of research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said in a blog post that “a coronavirus recession is inevitable.” He said at least 3 million people will lose their jobs this summer. In addition, the U.S. Travel Association was projecting 4.6 million jobs that will be lost this year in the travel industry alone, pushing the unemployment rate up to 6.3 percent.

Some businesses like Marriott said it expects to lay off tens of thousands of workers. Motor companies like Ford and General Motors have also temporarily shut down production amid the outbreak. On Wednesday, Ford announced its factories would close for two weeks at the end of Thursday, CNN reports. “Production at Ford’s U.S., Canadian and Mexican manufacturing facilities will be halted after Thursday evening’s shifts through March 30 to thoroughly clean and sanitize the company’s plants,” the company said in an announcement.

G.M. announced the same, mentioning “market conditions” as well as health concerns. “The suspension will last until at least March 30,” G.M. said in its announcement. “Production status will be reevaluated week-to-week after that.” In the meantime, the vehicle companies say they will be thoroughly refining their facilities. “We’re continuing to work closely with union leaders, especially the United Auto Workers, to find ways to help keep our workforce healthy and safe — even as we look at solutions for continuing to provide the vehicles customers really want and need,” said Kumar Galhotra, Ford (F) president of North America said in today’s announcement.