It's Not Just Job Losses-- Massive Pay Cuts Hitting U.S. Workers
When Cat's company made the decision the first week of March to have everyone work from home, they also made 2 more decisons: they laid off one person and made everyone else take a 15% pay cut. They applied for and managed to get the Payrole Protection money (which requires that they keep employees) by laying off the one guy right before signing up for that government program. (Sneaky, eh?)
Cat works for a very small company that operates out of an office in one of the skyscrapers in Seattle, and they're not being hit as hard as many companies, and were actually behind in their work for clients. Several months later, much of that backlog is caught up and they're starting to run out of things to do.
We've managed to pay bills okay and stay on top of things, but Cat's having a hard time curbing her spending habits. She has... just not quite well enough. Her savings are starting to dwindle...
Turns out this is not just an issue for employees like her. I didn't think so, but not many reports were coming out in all the frenzy reporting the massive job losses and unemployment claims. Those reports are starting to come out now.
Check this out: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/19/wage-cuts-economy-crisis-368508
I'm sure versions of this are affecting many areas of the world. Those nations that locked down, tested, and traced better than we have will have shorter interruptions than the rest of us, but most are facing threats of second and third waves of virus as this thing travels around the world and hot zones continue to flourish.
We're definitely entering a Depression.