Isabella Luna

Financial Journalism
Profesor Herndon
April 16, 2020
Facing Layoffs Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

Two weeks ago a University of Georgia Student was laid off from his full time job because of
the effects of COVID-19.

William Floyd, a team lead in the technology department at the University of Georgia Bookstore,
said it didn’t come as a shock.

“I came into work and my boss told me we were being laid off because of the state lockdown,”
Floyd said. “It wasn't the best feeling, but at the same time I expected it because it's what we
needed to be doing to help flatten the curve.”

According to the U.S. Labor Department, the number of unemployment claims filed between
March 15 and April 4 surged to 16.8 million. After California, Georgia was second with 388,175
new claims filed last week.

The Economic Policy Institute Projects 19.8 million people will be laid off or furloughed by
July, which will drive the unemployment rate to 15.6 percent.

Floyd said, “I’ve currently gotten unemployment checks from the Department of Labor, and my
company informed us that it was related to COVID. They even sent a letter to my house
personally.”

Many businesses did not anticipate the impact COVID-19 would have on employment.

Steven Hartman, the Vice President of Quality for General Electric Gas Power, wants companies
to avoid layoffs if they can.

“If your income and profits are not at the level that you can maintain and pay your workforce
then you end up having to lay people off or reduce hours. In retail it might be reducing hours, if
you're a full time employee we might do incentives for early retirement,” Hartman said.

Hartman said that there are things companies can do to avoid mass layoffs.
“Normally there's sort of several things that you do… there's the cost of buildings you're in, the
cost of running a business, which you try to reduce because you'd rather have the folks still
working,” he said.

“We have the capacity to help people and we’re in the communities themselves and we should
do that,” Hartman said. “It's unfortunate but it's the economics of the current industry, which will
probably not go back immediately to full swing.”

While the future is uncertain, some people expect employment to increase again after the Shelter
in place order is lifted.

“I hope that when the country reopens they will need more people back on staff. It would be
ideal to get my old job so I can go back to working and making money,” said Floyd.

Hartman said, “once we come out of shelter at home.. you'll see a bounce back. Does it go back
to the original employment levels? Probably not, at least not immediately. This may change how
we as a people live so you might see dramatic changes.”

DISCLAIMER: I have a personal relationship with both of the sources in this piece. William Floyd is my
significant other. Steven Hartman is my Mother’s boyfriend.