'Suddenly I have no paycheck': layoffs and cuts for workers rocked by coronavirus

[BeckyDem]

As the outbreak has hit America and the country has started to shut down, workers in many industries wonder: what now?

Nevin Muni, 52, has always had an unpredictable schedule working in a stockroom at TJ Maxx in Queens, New York. She regularly works about 20 hours a week after being requested to come in on unscheduled days.


To make ends meet, Muni has relied on working additional jobs, including as a Turkish language teacher, and most recently was signed up to work at a polling site for a local election. As the coronavirus epidemic has roared across the US and the country has started to shut down, she’s now lost both those jobs and her hours at TJ Maxx have reduced to one eight-hour shift a week.

“We are trying to make do. I’m looking for another job, but there are no other jobs. There is no hiring. I’m thinking at home: what can I do? I don’t know,” Muni told the Guardian.
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Muni is one of millions of workers across the US who are feeling the impacts of the coronavirus on the economy, or will do soon, as mass layoffs and cuts hit, with workers already in precarious situations being struck the hardest.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/19/coronavirus-workers-employees-staff-wages?CMP=share_btn_tw

[In_The_Wind]

1. Can you apply for unemployment benefits?

[BeckyDem]

2. Possibly, but I don't know that would make up for the total loss when you look at the one

example in the OP? If you have two three pieced together incomes from small business and or from something you do independently that added to your traditional job, I don't know how you could come close to the original income.

[LisaM]

3. We are going to see the down side of the gig economy

and fast.

[BeckyDem]

4. Yes, for some in a matter of a week!