The Pain of Pandemic-Induced Unemployment in America Is Brutal and Unceasing
The lack of long-term economic aid for unemployed workers has meant that incredible amounts of suffering are everywhere in America right now. We talked to unemployed workers to hear their stories in their own words.
Roughly twelve million workers will lose their benefits as a result of stimulus programs expiring. (Marcin Jazwiak / Unsplash)
“Life is just very hard right now. And you can sit there from afar and tell me everything I should be doing differently. You don’t know how hard it is.”
Nicole (a pseudonym) lost her job as a restaurant server in Detroit in March. “I was at work and my manager just told me to go home,” she told me. “Having never been through anything like this, I thought I would get called back to work maybe the next day, or in a couple days or something. I had no idea what we were all in for.”
She was already in a difficult living situation. Nicole and her four-year-old daughter live with her abusive, alcoholic boyfriend. The money she had been saving before the pandemic for her and her daughter to get their own place is now gone.
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