(The Center Square) – The toll of stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of COVID-19 is hurting lower-income workers the hardest, according to a new survey released Thursday by the Federal Reserve.
“Thirty-nine percent of people working in February with a household income below $40,000 reported a job loss in March," a report on the survey said. "Another 6% of all adults had their hours reduced or took unpaid leave. Taken together, 19% of all adults reported either losing a job or experiencing a reduction in work hours in March.”
More than 36 million American workers have applied for unemployment benefits over the past eight weeks as businesses deemed nonessential have been forced to temporarily close in response to the novel coronavirus.
"A clearer understanding of how families are coping with the changed economic landscape is vital as the Federal Reserve considers next steps to address fallout from the pandemic," Fed Board Gov. Michelle W. Bowman said in a statement. "The survey data show that early in the public health crisis, a larger fraction of Americans were facing financial hardship than in the fall of 2019."
The Fed’s annual report mainly focuses on the conditions of American households at the end of 2019, but a new survey was conducted in early April to assess conditions during the pandemic.
"Many people who lost a job remained connected to their employer and expected to return to the same job eventually," the report said. "Nine in 10 people who were furloughed or lost a job said that their employer indicated that they would return to their job at some point. In general, however, people were not told specifically when to expect to return to work. Seventy-seven percent said that their employer told them to expect to return, but did not give them a return date."
* This article was originally published here
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