The economy of the United States is currently struggling amidst the global pandemic that struck near the beginning of 2020. Since the pandemic struck and the stay-at-home order was put into effect, millions of Americans have lost their jobs and have thus filed for unemployment, according to an Orange County business attorney at Nakase Wade. Businesses in Orange County have turned to Nakase Wade’s corporate lawyer to navigate the pandemic.
When it hit the middle of April, nearly 4 million benefits were granted from unemployment for those claiming for the first time. That means that between the two months, over 30 million new first-time applicants were filing for unemployment.
Since then, the number of people applying for unemployment has subsided a little bit, but joblessness and unemployment remains a huge problem in America.
This quickly became a very stressful time for a lot of people because they have food to buy, rent to pay, and other bills to cover that they cannot cover without an income. Because of this, unemployment was the only way to survive for many people.
Within unemployment not getting better, there is also a significant decrease in spending overall. Because of this, the economy is struggling even more because consumer spending is one of the biggest contributors to the economy.
While the COVID cases don’t seem to be going down and the shutdown doesn’t seem to be ending, the amount of people without a job remains a big problem. Economists even predict that more workers will continue to be let go or laid off.
Congress attempted to help this issue by providing a relief program for those who have lost their job known as the CARES Act package. This package totaled $2 trillion and allowed those on unemployment to get an additional $600 every month on top of their existing benefits.
However, this was not a perfect system as not everyone saw monetary benefits, or their money was significantly delayed.