‘It’s going to get worse’: corporations are making plans for more layoffs, hiring stalls as COVID-19 intensifies

The economic devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is over.

Nearly one in 10 U. S. corporations plans to fire in the last 3 months of the year after the outbreak, according to a survey of human resources officials from 330 corporations conducted through conference board last month.

Nine% of corporations that reduced their size in the fourth quarter have moved away from pre-fitness crisis layoffs, when 2nine% of corporations cut staff, according to the survey, whose effects were provided exclusively to USA TODAY. are making primary restructuring plans this quarter that may come with layoffs that are not counted at nine percent, said Robin Erickson, senior human equity researcher at the Conference Board.

This quarter, 11% of corporations plan to pay premiums, 8% plan to defer increases or bonuses, and 12% say they will freeze hiring or restrict it to critical roles, adding 15%, 31%, and 77% respectively. previous steps this year, according to the survey.

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In a crisis that has supported some industries, such as generation and customer products, while crushing others, some corporations are accelerating hiring or canceling cost-cutting measures.

Overall, the survey reveals that the epidemic continues to devastate the economy even though some of the 22 million jobs lost in early spring recovered and gross domestic product increased by 33. 1% on an annualized basis in the third quarter, according to an earlier report. recovering two-thirds of lost production. The uptick has slowed significantly in recent months.

“We are in the recovery phase,” says Conference Board economist Frank Steemers, but for many corporations and their employees, “the pain is over. “

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Initial unemployment programmes, a measure of layoffs, declined in the week ended October 24 to 732,000, but that is almost 4 times pre-pandemic levels.

26% of respondents with decreases in earnings had fallen back to pre-COVID-19 grades in September, while 16% expected it to be repeated next April. In a spring survey, about 55% expected to return to pre-COVID grades – 19 sales through April.

While licensing and transitional layoffs made up the majority of task cuts in the spring, they are only 3% of those predicted for the fourth quarter, according to the Conference Board survey. Companies “don’t know how long it will take,” Steemers says.

Last week, the coronavirus set a record for new cases in a week, leading some states to restore industry restrictions. Restaurants that had begun to see their prepandemic grades technique are wasting consumers on the restaurants that supported them in the spring and summer. Congress is still stuck on a new relief bill that would provide more assistance to troubled businesses.

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“It’s definitely going to get worse for the places to eat industry,” says Bobby Stuckey, a spouse of Frasca Hospitality Group, which owns 3 Italian restaurants and a wine bar in Denver and Boulder, Colorado. “No one has discovered a post. “

In March, the company fired the seven workers from their places to eat because their places of eating were limited to takeaway and home and income fell by 90 percent, Stuckey said. at 50% of its capacity, the company recovered about 170 workers, usually full-time, and sales rose to about 55% of its prepandemic level, a small profit.

Last week, bloodless and snow-free weather returned, cases of viruses increased, and Denver restaurants were forced to consume indoor food at 25% of their capacity. Stuckey temporarily switched all his full-time painters to part-time paintings and is comparing the license in the coming months.

“Every week we are going to have to go down and see what we can do to keep our business alive until next year,” he says.

Layoffs are affecting the most affected sectors, such as catering, retail and entertainment to administrative posts. Exxon, Charles Schwab and Raytheon announced thousands of weekly layoffs.

Companies that had escaped task cuts can no longer stand. Last September, Walt Disney announced that it would lay off 28,000 employees at its theme parks in California and Florida. In a letter to employees, Josh D’Amaro, president of Disney Parks, Experience and Product, said control has cut expenses, suspended capital projects, and replaced operations to avoid layoffs, but that’s not enough, given Disneyland’s closure and the limits on the number of visitors to Disney World under social estre rules. D’Amaro also spoke of “persistent uncertainty about the duration of the pandemic. “

“First of all, we expected the stage to be short-lived,” he wrote.

Ilitch Holdings, which operates sports and entertainment venues in the Detroit domain and has 24,000 workers worldwide, ended several weeks ago an unexpected number of layoffs and vacations. Early last month, the airline industry announced more than 30,000 or more vacations in the next few months without federal assistance.

The hotel industry has lost nearly a quarter of its 8. 3 million pre-pandemic jobs and could give up 1. 7 million more without help, warns William “Chip” Rogers, executive director of the American Hotel and Accommodation Association.

The technology, e-commerce, housing, and customer products industries have flourished as many Americans stay at home and eat cleaning and fitness items, leading corporations like Amazon and CVS to particularly increase their recruitment. 12% of corporations surveyed through the Conference Board plan to increase hiring in the last 3 months of the year.

Many corporations that took cost-cutting measures before this year are undoing them: about 58% of those that left leave leave leave, 55% of which reduced their working hours, 48% of which reduced wages, and 39% of those who froze hiring canceled the measures in whole or in part.

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Nick Friedman, co-founder and president of College Hunks Hauling Junk and Moving, said his franchisees’ operations fell at the start of the pandemic because Americans delayed planned movements, resulting in a 30% drop in revenue from 200 employees of his company. The company has reduced wages by 30% for executives earning more than $100,000 and by 20% for other employees.

By June, the business had returned to 2019 levels, and the epidemic caused many apartments to move into homes and many of the city’s citizens moved to larger suburban homes, leading the company to cancel wage cuts, Friedman said. were 20% higher than at the same time a year ago, leading the company to reimburse workers for their pay cuts.

“We felt it was right for us to make total team members,” he said.

He says College Hunks will rent to six employees, which will add commercial progress and franchise support.

“We have a year,” Friedman says.

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