Pandemic Benefits Threaten Local Workforce
Unemployment benefits have been a security blanket for millions of Americans since the beginning of the pandemic and as of Monday, Sept. 6, this comfort will be ripped out from under them.
For Poughkeepsie resident Keith Hughes, unemployment benefits helped him take time to recover from his COVID infection in March 2020. Hughes was hospitalized for 14 days before returning to working with high functional clients at his job.
The benefits “were fine” and not a “big deal” to Hughes, as he got back up on his feet quickly. However, to many other Americans, this was their way of living.
Across the United States, 26 states ended federal unemployment benefits a month ago and the federal government is jumping on board. The government has spent nearly $800 billion to help Americans stay afloat since the start of COVID-19 rage across the U.S. An estimated 9 million Americans will lose all unemployment benefits and around 3 million will lose their weekly $300 bonus.
With no money coming in, will Americans begin to make their way back into the workforce to make ends meet?
Front of house manager of Lolita’s Pizza Anderson Mota said hiring during this time has been a challenge. The restaurant has received interest from the public in work, but they did not get as many prospective workers as they thought they were going to get despite restrictions being lifted over the summer.
“There wasn’t a good correlation between the mask mandates and the restrictions being loosening up, and the amount of applicants we’ve been getting,” said Mota.
Compared to normal circumstances, Lolita’s is lacking staff for the seasonal restaurant. According to Mota, the maximum number of people working at one time would be around 10 and some nights during the pandemic, they only had six employees running the restaurant.
“We didn’t really get that many people that actually inquired about it. So that was definitely a change of pace…” said Mota. “We make it work, but it’s definitely affected how many people we can have work and how many people we need to [work].”
The reasons behind these numbers, Mota suspects, are because of unemployment benefits. Prior to working in Poughkeepsie, Mota was working in New York City. He luckily found a job as the pandemic started, but this was right before the benefits started coming in. Several people around Mota were better off than him at the time, even though he was employed.
“I had friends that were making 1,200 bucks a week before taxes and everything through their unemployment, and they’re just like ‘that’s more money I’m getting or than I got when I was working.’ So I feel like a lot of people were also taking full advantage of the benefits,” Mota explained.
The pandemic plays a big factor in the lack of jobs being taken. Hughes believes this is why many people are not returning to work. Delta has posed a major threat to everything we thought would go back to normal. Hughes has been working remotely for three weeks, as the building next to his office had a COVID outbreak.
As of July 2021, the unemployment rate for the Duchess-Putnam region was five percent, making for a slight jump from July 2019’s unemployment rate of three percent. However, the area has not returned to the same number of jobs as prior to the pandemic. A 10.3 percent decrease has been seen in jobs from July 2019 to July 2021.
For those that were on unemployment benefits, life was safer and those were less likely to catch COVID.
“They’re getting that livable wage from not working [rather] than working. They’re safer at home,” said Mota. “They’re getting what they should be getting in order for them to pay out their bills. They’re not exposed to anything. So I think that’s what it primarily comes down to.”
Now that benefits have been overturned, the flow of money in the economy is in question as well. The benefits helped many pay bills, rent, groceries, etc. and the money was going back into the economy. However, people may begin to tighten up their spending because of the lack of extra money.
The decline in dining occurs after the holidays, however, Mota said it may be earlier this year. He expects to see an impact in spending and hopes some people were able to save money while receiving benefits. However, he also is expecting an increase in job applications this month and in the coming month.
“Hopefully with the benefits ending and people needing to return back to work there won’t be such a drastic drop in leisure spending/dining out as I’m expecting and preparing for,” said Mota. “And hopefully the rate of infection goes down again too because that would also tighten a lot of spending.”
Unemployment benefits and the rate of COVID-19 infection has put a damper on the hiring process and may even affect the economy as much as the beginning of the pandemic.
“This isn’t going anywhere,” said Hughes.
