GOP Refuses Urgent Main St. Relief; 10s of Thousands of Shuttered Businesses Now Closing Permanently
Last edited Sat Jul 25, 2020, 08:29 PM - Edit history (1)
'With GOP Refusing Urgent Relief for Main Street, Tens of Thousands of Shuttered US Businesses Now Closing... Permanently. Permanent closures now account for 55% of all closed businesses since March 1.' By Julia Conley, staff writer Common Dreams, July 24, 2020. - Excerpts, Ed.:
With Republicans in Congress intent on drastically reducing aid for unemployed Americans and altering the Paycheck Protection Act in the next coronavirus relief bill, workers across the country are rapidly losing hope that they will ever be able to return to their jobs, according to new polling. A survey released Friday by AP-NORC found that while 78% of workers who were furloughed or laid off in the early days of the pandemic believed in April that they'd be able to return to work eventually, just 34% are optimistic about their prospects now. Just 18% have already returned to their jobs, and 47% say they no longer believe their old jobs will be available ever again.
The same poll found that 72% of Americans would still rather see the federal, state, and local governments impose restrictions aimed at preserving public health rather than prioritizing reopening economies while the coronavirus continues to spread across the country.- "We are going to need historic levels of economic investments to lift up our communities." -- Jamaal Bowman, Democratic congressional candidate. Though many Americans were hopeful in March and April that the closings of schools and businesses were temporary interruptions of daily life, data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis released earlier this month found that the number of people who have permanently lost their jobs has steadily been on the rise since March.
Research released separately Thursday by Yelp, the online business review website, showed that among establishments that are currently shut down, permanent closures now make up a larger share than temporary ones. "Even as total closures fall, permanent closures increase with 72,842 businesses permanently closed, out of the 132,580 total closed businesses, an increase of 15,742 permanent closures since June 15," reported Yelp. "This also means that the percentage of permanent to temporary business closures is rising, with permanent closures now accounting for 55% of all closed businesses since March 1."
Jamaal Bowman, a progressive who won the Democratic primary in New York's 16th district last month, called for "historic levels of economic investments to lift up our communities" after seeing the report. Harvard researcher Michael Stepner, who has tracked businesses since the pandemic began, told the Washington Post that many owners are having to make hard decisions about whether to renew their leases, knowing the economic effects of the crisis could stretch on for many months. "It is really hard to make a one-year commitment to paying rent when businesses are closing down for the second time and there's no end in sight to this virus," Stepner told the Post.
Permanent business closures are highest in the restaurant industry, with more than 15,000 closures reported by Yelp. More than 12,000 retail stores' closures are permanent, and nearly 5,000 beauty and personal care establishments have shuttered for good...
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