‘We Feel So Broken’: In a pandemic, even those who can get jobs are not financially safe

At the start of the year, Lori Graham, a school bus driver in Oregon’s Multnomah County, was used to working a near-40 hour week.

Then the COVID-19 outbreak began.

A furlough  came in June, and when she returned to work at the start of Oregon’s school year in September, her hours were cut in half.

“It doesn’t make the house payment let alone any other bills. My husband is retired and unable to hold down a part time job due to multiple ailments,” Graham wrote on LinkedIn. “Do I qualify for a partial low employment, since my hours were cut in half?”

Graham is one of hundreds of LinkedIn members who shared comments over the past few days detailing how the pandemic has impacted their health, incomes and mental state, just as the U.S. economic recovery begins to lose steam in its recovery from a peak of 14.7% unemployment in April.

Read: Long stimulus wait causes pain

In September, the jobless rate fell to 7.9%, which represents a recovery of about half of the 22 million jobs lost at the outset of the pandemic. Yet, there are reasons to fear workers in key industries remain vulnerable.

Disney announced in late September that it would lay off 28,000 domestic employees, most employed by its theme parks, a sign of worry for workers at entertainment venues nationwide. The start of autumn also casts doubt over whether the U.S. restaurant industry, which lost over 6 million jobs at the start of the pandemic, can keep the portion of those jobs it regained over the summer, especially in states where indoor capacity is limited and outdoor dining is less viable with the drop in temperatures.  

Meanwhile, 4.4 million people have dropped out of the labor force since February altogether, while others have been forced into partial employment.

An early September report published by USA Today gave one indication of how widespread that plight is. Of the millions of Americans who were experiencing furloughs and temporary layoffs in April, 40% had returned to work, the report said. Of those returning workers, 29% have seen either their hours or wages cut, according to the report. 

The report cited figures shared by Gusto, which provides payroll services to over 100,000 small businesses, per USA Today.

Graham, who drives special needs students — and whose husband, a former truck driver, retired last December — is hoping to overcome her pay cut and make her November house payment, while worried that school closures meant to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 could jeopardize her livelihood. 

“I could lose my job because kids aren’t in school, and [personal finances] could be depleted, and where would my job go?”

Caleb Wilson is another Oregon resident whose life has been upended by the pandemic in more ways than one. 

“I was laid off in March and quarantined HARD,” he wrote. “I was under [the] impression that the lives of our friends and family depended on our collaborative abstinence from social engagement. My father died of covid in August; he had never stopped working.”

Wilson, who studies at the East West College of the Healing Arts in Portland, took a leave of absence from school after the death of his father, he told LinkedIn News. He has since returned to classes, but not work, and has been supported financially through a combination of unemployment benefits, the one-time stimulus check sent by the federal government and food stamps.

Returning to restaurant work would only mean less pay, while working under more dangerous conditions, he says. 

“I'm sure plenty would argue: ‘I found work, I work at a coffee shop that is socially distant, I work at a grocery store, etc.’ My problem remains: The jobs are underpaying, the hours necessary to make ends meet are difficult to negotiate with my studies, the open economy itself is a moral failure.”

The variety of stories shared by LinkedIn members shows the unique nature of the current recession compared to those of the past. 

The turbulence in the economy is occurring just as the U.S. passes 7.5 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, which have led to over 215,000 confirmed deaths. New cases, meanwhile, are being confirmed at a rate well above 40,000 a day. Higher than the average reached in April when unemployment hit its peak.

It’s not just an economic crisis, it’s an economic crisis happening in tandem with a health crisis, and the persistence of the virus is leading to workers being impacted in ways that were previously uncommon. 

Lianne Rae Monreal, a Tuscon-based sales manager, says she was able to keep her job, but sales in the vending industry dropped so significantly that her income has decreased in kind. “I did receive the stimulus and it really saved me,” she wrote. “But I was praying for another to help keep my house payments going.”

Lorraine Marie, a California-based personal assistant, is self-employed and usually works with clients inside their homes. But, because she is a breast cancer survivor, and thus immunocompromised, she’s been unable to work. “While I want and NEED to work, I can’t put myself at risk until our country has a safe, proven and effective vaccine. It’s more than a dilemma,” she wrote.

Meanwhile, while some people are avoiding a return to unsafe work, in order to protect their health, others may well be doing both, while mourning the loss of a loved one.

“I am grieving my father, too, which has debilitated my health and that of my family,” Wilson said. “We feel so broken.”