Hiring Outlook Remains Dim As Unemployment Claims Continue to Pour In

The number of new state unemployment claims dipped last week, but job losses continue to batter the economy as rising coronavirus cases pushed some regions of the country to reverse course and reimpose shutdown orders on businesses.More than 1.3 million workers, seasonally adjusted, filed new claims for regular unemployment benefits last week, the government reported on Thursday. Another million first-time claims were filed under the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program. Taken together, the report paints a disappointing picture of recovery: Total new unemployment claims have edged up from their mid-June lows.Although hiring nationwide has picked up in recent weeks, most of the payroll gains were temporarily laid-off workers who were rehired. The pool of employees whose previous jobs have disappeared and who must search for new ones has grown.“Their circumstances may be more challenging to rectify than those who were laid off because of a temporary closure,” said Elizabeth Akers, who was a staff economist with the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush. “Finding new jobs will be more difficult. There’s been scarring in the economy.”Recent readings from employment sites also point to more lasting damage to the labor market. Overall job openings at ZipRecruiter rose last week, for instance, but the number of new jobs posted declined for the fourth week in a row.“For now, at least, that suggests the increase in vacancies is being driven by a slowdown in hiring, not an increase in labor demand,” said Julia Pollak, ZipRecruiter’s labor economist.“Recent jobs reports are encouraging, but the increase in employment entirely reflects rehires of workers on temporary layoff,” she added. “The recovery in new hiring has yet to begin.”The longer the pandemic dampens or halts shopping, dining out, travel and business operations, the more likely it is that jobs put on a brief hold simply vanish.Brooks Brothers, the nation’s oldest apparel brand in continuous operation, filed for bankruptcy this week and permanently closed 51 stores. And airlines announced that they might lay off or furlough tens of thousands of employees in October despite billions of dollars in government aid because air travel has not rebounded.In Texas, where a jump in coronavirus cases has led to a new round of business closings and other restrictions, unemployment claims have risen. More than 117,000 people filed for benefits in Texas last week, a jump of more than 20,000 from a week earlier. It was the second straight weekly increase and the most new filings since late May, although still below the peak in early April.A wide range of indicators recently have suggested that the economic rebound is losing momentum in states where virus cases are rising quickly.The unemployment data released Thursday didn’t paint a clear picture, however. New filings fell in Oklahoma, Florida and other virus hot spots, and rose only slightly in Arizona. Claims rose in New Jersey and New York, states where the virus is comparatively under control. And economists caution against reading too much into week-to-week changes in state filings, which can be volatile.Congress created the emergency Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program in March to extend benefits to independent contractors, self-employed workers and others who don’t qualify for regular state unemployment insurance. The effort got off to a slow start: Many states struggled to roll out the program while dealing with a record number of regular unemployment claims. Jobless workers across the country reported encountering jammed websites, lost paperwork and confusing or contradictory instructions.Those issues have spilled into the data itself. Backlogs, data-entry errors and other issues have made it hard to know how many people are receiving benefits under the program, or exactly when their claims were first filed. At least some states appear to be counting the same recipients multiple times.But economists say there is little doubt that the program is helping millions of workers who would ordinarily fall through the cracks of the unemployment safety net. More than 10 million people have filed claims under the emergency pandemic program, which is set to expire at the end of the year.A weekly $600 federal supplement for all jobless workers is scheduled to end this month. The Paycheck Protection Program, an effort designed to preserve jobs by offering forgivable loans to small business, was recently extended through October.Liz Etheredge, the chief executive of Mecklenburg Paint in Charlotte, N.C., said the federal loan made it possible for her to keep workers employed.The spring paint season was just starting when the pandemic hit. “Oh, gosh, things just pretty much stopped,” said Ms. Etheredge, whose company also handles property management.

Updated July 7, 2020

Is the coronavirus airborne?
The coronavirus can stay aloft for hours in tiny droplets in stagnant air, infecting people as they inhale, mounting scientific evidence suggests. This risk is highest in crowded indoor spaces with poor ventilation, and may help explain super-spreading events reported in meatpacking plants, churches and restaurants. It’s unclear how often the virus is spread via these tiny droplets, or aerosols, compared with larger droplets that are expelled when a sick person coughs or sneezes, or transmitted through contact with contaminated surfaces, said Linsey Marr, an aerosol expert at Virginia Tech. Aerosols are released even when a person without symptoms exhales, talks or sings, according to Dr. Marr and more than 200 other experts, who have outlined the evidence in an open letter to the World Health Organization.

What are the symptoms of coronavirus?
Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.

Is it harder to exercise while wearing a mask?
A commentary published this month on the website of the British Journal of Sports Medicine points out that covering your face during exercise “comes with issues of potential breathing restriction and discomfort” and requires “balancing benefits versus possible adverse events.” Masks do alter exercise, says Cedric X. Bryant, the president and chief science officer of the American Council on Exercise, a nonprofit organization that funds exercise research and certifies fitness professionals. “In my personal experience,” he says, “heart rates are higher at the same relative intensity when you wear a mask.” Some people also could experience lightheadedness during familiar workouts while masked, says Len Kravitz, a professor of exercise science at the University of New Mexico.

I’ve heard about a treatment called dexamethasone. Does it work?
The steroid, dexamethasone, is the first treatment shown to reduce mortality in severely ill patients, according to scientists in Britain. The drug appears to reduce inflammation caused by the immune system, protecting the tissues. In the study, dexamethasone reduced deaths of patients on ventilators by one-third, and deaths of patients on oxygen by one-fifth.

What is pandemic paid leave?
The coronavirus emergency relief package gives many American workers paid leave if they need to take time off because of the virus. It gives qualified workers two weeks of paid sick leave if they are ill, quarantined or seeking diagnosis or preventive care for coronavirus, or if they are caring for sick family members. It gives 12 weeks of paid leave to people caring for children whose schools are closed or whose child care provider is unavailable because of the coronavirus. It is the first time the United States has had widespread federally mandated paid leave, and includes people who don’t typically get such benefits, like part-time and gig economy workers. But the measure excludes at least half of private-sector workers, including those at the country’s largest employers, and gives small employers significant leeway to deny leave.

Does asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19 happen?
So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was “very rare,” but she later walked back that statement.

What’s the risk of catching coronavirus from a surface?
Touching contaminated objects and then infecting ourselves with the germs is not typically how the virus spreads. But it can happen. A number of studies of flu, rhinovirus, coronavirus and other microbes have shown that respiratory illnesses, including the new coronavirus, can spread by touching contaminated surfaces, particularly in places like day care centers, offices and hospitals. But a long chain of events has to happen for the disease to spread that way. The best way to protect yourself from coronavirus — whether it’s surface transmission or close human contact — is still social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face and wearing masks.

How does blood type influence coronavirus?
A study by European scientists is the first to document a strong statistical link between genetic variations and Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Having Type A blood was linked to a 50 percent increase in the likelihood that a patient would need to get oxygen or to go on a ventilator, according to the new study.

How can I protect myself while flying?
If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. (Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.)

What should I do if I feel sick?
If you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others.

Initially she helped most of her 30 employees apply for unemployment benefits, which she said was time consuming and confusing. “One day I waited on hold for three hours to reach somebody” with the state to work out glitches with benefit applications, she said, “and then another day I waited two hours.”She applied for a Paycheck Protection Program loan, hoping to avoid permanently laying off painters.“It came just in time,” said Ms. Etheredge, who was able to avoid using up her savings.She has put everyone back on the payroll through the use of her loan money, so she expects that the entire amount will be forgiven.“I just worry how this country is going to pay it all back,” she said.Thomas Falls Jr. used the federal loan program to help pay workers at his family’s commercial cleaning company, Falls Facility Services in Birmingham, Ala.About a quarter of his business, which spans much of the state, dried up when the pandemic started, Mr. Falls said. He was forced to lay off about 25 workers south of Montgomery when the schools they cleaned closed. A new contract at a county government building elsewhere in the state and demand for enhanced sanitizing at other offices, though, made it possible to keep the rest of his 200 employees on the payroll, and even hire a few more.“We were kind of fortunate,” said Mr. Falls, who said he planned to rehire the rest of his employees once schools reopened.Lisa D. Cook, a professor of economics and international relations at Michigan State University, worries what will happen when these assistance programs dry up.“At the heart of this is job loss,” said Ms. Cook, who testified before a congressional committee this week. State and local governments are laying off health care and education workers, and eviction bans are expiring even though a significant chunk of household renters and businesses are having trouble making payments.“I just worry about this all piling up in the system,” she said.Many jobless workers may have to wait a long time for the labor market to improve. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said this week that high unemployment would probably persist in the United States and other developed countries at least until 2022.


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