
Coronavirus: 18% of U.S. workers have lost jobs or hours, poll finds - myth_drannon
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-03-17/coronavirus-layoffs-work-hours-jobs
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amiga_500
Why not break this into:

N% have lost jobs

N% have lost hours

We don't have N% have dead or infected with cv, do we?

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Wohlf
Because they want you to think the worst, i.e. 18% have lost jobs, because the
title is clickbait.

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amiga_500
If cv is very bad ( I really hope it is not ) many boomers will pass away. Who
then will read newspapers? They are just utter garbage now.

This is one of many changes CV will bring, IMHO.

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unlinked_dll
I'm hearing that companies are facing sudden cash flow problems, where due to
the outbreak orders are cancelled last minute en masse. these companies
guarantee 50-100% refunds no matter when you cancel, so orders are sitting on
loading docks that have been paid for with no one to go, and the revenue has
suddenly turned into costs.

I have no idea why markets turned higher today. Shit is hitting the fan. Work
is being stopped, layoffs are going on across small margin businesses, and
people are not going to have money to pay their rent or mortgage in two weeks.
And the only thing I've seen from the Government is talk - zero policy, zero
decisions.

And this isn't just your neighborhood cafes laying people off. It's companies
up and down the supply chains and B2B manufacturers that don't operate on high
margins and don't have vast reserves of cash.

When the quarantines and shutdowns half, it's going to be a bloodbath of
consolidation.

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sub7
Since 2008, most of the jobs created have been service jobs. The low
unemployment everyone keeps on about is covering up the fact that the people
who got employed got shittier jobs.

This thing is going to be a bloodbath in the US. We'll probably see a
Democratic wave in November.

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canada_dry
> We'll probably see a Democratic wave in November.

I'm still on the fence about this.

It's certainly conceivable that the Trump Whitehouse will throw excessive
amounts of money at the problem - i.e. going downright socialist by giving
millions of citizens $1,000 to $2,500/mnth welfare cheque through the spring.

The almost certainty is that Trump (GOP et al) will do anything possibly to
remain in power come November.

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tj-teej
I think this is a very interesting analysis. I think it's more apt to say
there could be a Populist wave in Nov, which could be very positive for
whichever party adopts a populist stance. Looking at the current state of the
Democratic Primary it doesn't appear it will be the Dems which push that
agenda.

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legohead
wife's job is "firing" people so they can collect unemployment, and will
rehire them later. I don't know the legalities around this, it's definitely
odd. and you have to take the business' word for it...

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unlinked_dll
It's not odd, that's pretty standard practice in dire situations like this.
The company doesn't have the money to pay your wife or her colleagues, and
since the government hasn't done anything special (yet) to help out businesses
the only way they can guarantee she gets a portion of her salary is through
layoffs.

If they furloughed your wife instead, she would not get paid anything by
anyone until the government decides what the relief effort looks like.

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baron816
BLS data is going to look crazy. Surely, there’ll be a jobs report where
unemployment jumps from <4% to >10%. And then in a few months, it’ll jump back
down again.

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nugget
How far will it jump back down?

A lot of small and medium sized businesses are pretty marginally profitable
and exist because of legacy momentum. I'm starting to think that a lot of
these businesses will never re-start after the pandemic ends.

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RickJWagner
If there's any saving grace, it might be that this is spring-break time.
Perhaps some workers were planning on spending cash on a vacation, that money
can be used for essentials.

Wishful thinking, probably. But I'm really looking for ways this will all work
out. (As it inevitably will.)

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BubRoss
In related news, 90% have either coughed or died suddenly.

Losing hours and losing jobs are two very different things, conflating
statistics like this is counterproductive to understanding.

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simondw
Grouping related things together isn't necessarily conflating.

I don't think the article is trying to say "18% of workers have basically lost
their jobs!!!", but rather to give a sense of how many people's incomes are
impacted.

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WillPostForFood
If they weren't trying to conflate them the headline would have been
"Coronavirus: 18% of U.S. workers have reduced our or lost jobs"

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IanDrake
For many, losing a job maybe preferable so they can collect unemployment.

Edit for what I thought was obvious context:

If you had a full-time job and where forced to go to meager part-time hours,
it might be better to just get laid off and collect. I had a friend in this
situation. It would have been better for him to have been laid off.

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rubidium
Loosing a fully paying job is never preferable to unemployment in the US.

E.g. “ If you are eligible to receive unemployment, the weekly benefit rate in
Indiana is 47% of your average weekly wage (to come up with your average
weekly wage, divide your total wages during the base period by 52). The weekly
benefit rate is subject to a minimum of $50 and a maximum of $390. You may
receive benefits for a maximum of 26 weeks.”

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8ytecoder
But it could be a temporary thing. Service workers can be laid off temporarily
and hired back. Essentially offloading them from the company's payroll and
adding them to the states'. Instead, if there's an option for states to
provide unemployment without actually getting fired - disability? - for anyone
affected not just those with the virus could also help in these times.

There are a ton of businesses that operate on thin margins - restaurant and
service industry in general - and it makes sense for the government to step
in.

