Stephanie Accolla’s career was on the rise. As a banquet manager at a contracting company that worked for the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, she prided herself on being a hardworking woman in the management of her industry. She and her husband were about to buy a house after years of saving money. His dream was to give his 10-year-old stepson a place with a yard where he could run.
Then everything stopped.
Accolla, 34, was released from her contract in April and filed for unemployment insurance along with millions of others who were left without a job while the coronavirus pandemic was transforming the American economy – and people’s lives. Suddenly, Accolla found herself taking full-time care of her stepson, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and whose school has switched to distance learning. The family now has only the income of her husband, who is a damage assessor at an auto repair shop.
The money they had saved for paying for a house now had to be spent on basic necessities, and the family needed to have food stamps and free meals provided by the government. They now struggle to pay for health care out of pocket.
“If we didn’t have any of the food stamps or state assistance that we have, I don’t know what we would do,” she said.
The sudden blow of losing an income caused the family to fall from relative comfort to a life week after week.
“It cost a lot, a lot, and I still suffer from it constantly,” said Accolla. “It is scary.”
The pandemic has affected the lives of millions of families who have suddenly found themselves without one or both sources of income. Many have ceased to take advantage of the cultural markers of the middle class – job stability, home ownership and some disposable income – and have reached the brink of poverty.
Some experts fear that the effects may be long-lasting.
According to the US Census Bureau, 115 million people have experienced losses in income from employment since the pandemic began in March 2020 until last month.
And according to a report by the Pew Research Center released this month, more than 4 out of 10 adults say that they or someone else in their families have lost jobs or wages since the pandemic began.
Even with unemployment insurance, which struggled with claims delays amid unprecedented demand, and other benefits, the impact could have ramifications for years, economic experts and advocates said.
The Pew Research Center survey found that about half of non-retired adults said the economic impact of the pandemic will make it more difficult for them to achieve their long-term financial goals. Among those who said their financial situation had worsened, 44 percent said they thought it would take three years or more to get back to where they were a year ago, and about 1 in 10 said they thought their finances would never recover .
Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a non-profit research organization, said that middle and low-income families are vulnerable to major economic instability after income losses.
“It is incredibly destabilizing in the short term,” she said. “People just don’t have the savings to resist job losses or reduce hours or leave to keep paying their bills,” she said.
Losing a home, facing declines in your credit score or the continued inability to get a job can also affect a family long after the pandemic is over, she said.
Accolla said it took him six or seven years to build what his family owned, “and he left as quickly as a year.”
Facing credit card debt and having to spend her savings, she wonders when they will be able to recover.
“Will we be able to recover again? Will we return to a comfortable place? Will we be able to have a home?” she asked.
Elizabeth Ananat, an economics professor at Barnard College in New York City, said the pandemic caused a huge decline in the workforce. Some people cannot work because of responsibilities like being caregivers, and others want to work, but have given up looking.
Food insecurity has skyrocketed, she said, especially among families with young children.
“They lost more jobs and, of course, they are children who need to be cared for all the time,” she said, adding that the loss of income has directly translated into “these really serious material difficulties”, such as evictions or threats from them and increased hunger .
The losses were especially devastating for women, as well as black and Latino families, she said.
Naomi Cahn, director of the Family Law Center at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the pandemic had a “disproportionate impact on families of color”.
“This is a very, very important part of the story,” she said.
In an analysis of data collected last month in the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, the research organization Child Trends found that 24 percent of American adults in families with children, or 1 in 4, reported having limited confidence that they would be able to make your next rent or mortgage payments on time. Among black families with children, the figure was 40 percent.
The Biden government said its $ 1.9 trillion aid package will lift 11 million people out of poverty “and cut child poverty in half.”
“This could provide at least some temporary stability for many families,” said Cahn.
She said she and family advocates expect the package’s measures, such as an expanded child tax credit, to become permanent in order to seriously address the family’s economic security.
Shanita Matthews, an independent contracted nurse in Georgia, started a small wedding decorating business in May 2019, before the pandemic. Then she discovered that her 7-year-old daughter’s school was going remote in March and closed her business.
“It really put me between a rock and a difficult situation, because I didn’t get a nursing job, simply because most of these jobs last eight to 12 hours,” she said.
In July, Matthews, 41, filed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, special unemployment insurance for people who normally do not qualify for unemployment benefits, including those who are self-employed, self-employed and parents unable to work due to unemployment needs. child care during the pandemic.
She said she was denied after a process of months, including an appeal, and was told that she did not qualify because she did not earn enough from her business and because she had applied for her while her daughter was not in remote education. She filed a petition for her case to be re-examined.
“I was terrified and desperate, because there were large balances on my gas, electricity and water bill, business credit card,” she said.
The family depended on the husband’s income from a car collision center, where he works to order. Before, with her income, the two used to share the burden of paying the bills.
She and her husband used to keep their savings. They could pay for a babysitter and go out on dating nights twice a month. They would take birthday trips in the fall and vacation with their daughter in the spring or summer.
Now, the family has to face the disconnection of the lights. Her car was resumed in September and her husband’s in October. Your internet has been hacked. Her husband worked 70 hours a week just so that they could pay the mortgage.
She lost some of her nursing certifications because they expired and she had no money to replace them, further limiting the jobs she could take on.
“You lose a lot when you lose your income. It’s almost like you lose your credibility,” she said.
Although she has finally been able to renew her proper nursing requirements, she is still unable to commit to the type of hours that a nursing job would require, as her daughter’s school was opened and then became remote again because of the pandemic.
Matthews said he believed the pandemic would have a long-term impact on her career and salaries, because she had not been able to work as a nurse in a year.
“So when I get back, I will have less bargaining power to make sure that I am compensated not only for my education, but for the time I spent building my training in cardiology,” she said.
Although she said the recent stimulus check provided a much-needed boost to buy essentials, the family is still trying to survive.
“I am telling you that it can really hinder your sanity by going through significant changes like the ones we have gone through,” she said.
Although the pandemic has had devastating impacts for people of all ages, a survey published in October found that older workers experienced higher unemployment than those in their mid-career years and that workers 55 and older lost their jobs more quickly and went back to work more slowly.
Carol, 61, a Denver travel consultant, lost her job at a travel agency during the pandemic. After 41 years in the industry, she found herself unable to get another job at her age, despite applying vigorously, she said.
“When I lost my job, I knew it wouldn’t be very easy to find another job. But I think I even underestimated it,” said Carol, who asked that her surname not be released for fear of future job problems.
Previously, her income accounted for two-thirds of what she and her husband, who is a brewery salesman, brought home.
“The stress in my marriage has really been a difficult thing. I have been married for almost 39 years and I don’t think we have been through so many times,” she said.
Once comfortable with their wages, they now seek discounts when shopping or strategize about what and when to buy. This happened when one of his adult children returned home during the pandemic. Although they could help their two children financially if they needed to, this is no longer an option.
Carol is grateful to be the owner of her home, so she doesn’t have to worry about ending up on the street. But property taxes, car payments and insurance payments add up.
Carol said she continues to look for work, but is beginning to be more convinced that the job market has ended, unless travel agencies or airlines start hiring again.
“Many people say, ‘Regardless of your stellar credentials, we decided to look for other candidates at this point.’ They take a little bit out of your soul every time you take them, “she said.