Coronavirus Pandemic Throws New Jersey Workers into Disarray
As infection rates begin to surge again, future remains murky for those just trying to make ends meet
Many Americans were already in a fragile spot when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. While President Donald Trump boasted of lowered unemployment rates, some workers were not taking home enough pay to enjoy stable living arrangements.
A staggering 26.9 million Americans lacked health insurance, and 10.5 percent of the populace was living below the poverty line. The gig economy offered jobs, but those jobs did not immediately lead to prosperity. In New Jersey, where the cost of living is among the highest in the nation, many were not taking home enough pay to enjoy stable living arrangements.
Nine months later, workers are reeling from job losses and an overwhelmed, labyrinthine unemployment system. With just $1200 of federal assistance deposited into Americans’ pockets at the onset of the crisis, times are tough.
Jake Shapiro, a Jersey City resident and freelancer who works as a camera operator on film and television sets, first filed for benefits in the last week of March, in the pandemic’s nascent days.
“I think the whole country hit a certain period where it was all of a sudden, it became real, like, ‘Oh, wait, this is going to go on for a while,’’’ Shapiro said. “So I was like, shit, that’s like my only recourse right now.”
Workers in New Jersey have generally been hit harder than most. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the Garden State had an unemployment rate of 8.2 percent in October, higher than the national rate of 6.9 percent. While the national rate has continued to trend downwards, New Jersey experienced a 1.5 percent jump in joblessness between September and October.
Todd Federman, an economics professor at Montclair State University and former Wall Street executive, described the situation as “bizarre.”
“This is not a normal recession,” Federman said. “There are parts of the economy that are doing great. And there are parts of the economy that aren’t down 10 percent or 20 percent. They’re down 100 percent. And that’s never happened before.”
With that small army of workers out of a job, the state’s unemployment system has been put into overdrive. As of November 25th, the state had paid out a total of $19.3 billion to benefit-seekers. For many, whether because of bureaucratic fatigue or the confusing layout of the system, the help took far too long to arrive.
Shapiro didn’t receive his first payment until August. When the money finally came it arrived as a large chunk of what he was owed.
“I wasn’t able to get in touch with anybody [at the Department of Labor],” Shapiro said. “And I wasn’t able to do anything through the website or anything. It was total darkness. Like, am I ever going to see this money? And what am I going to do if I don’t? I was starting to think about learning a career where I could work from home, like totally having to re-figure out my whole life.”
For some, going without a paycheck was a choice.
Devlin O’Connell was working as a waitress at Bareburger in Montclair when the pandemic began. O’Connell has Chron’s disease and takes immunosuppressants as part of her treatment for it. Those factors put her squarely in the high-risk category.
“I wound up sending a message saying, like, ‘Hey, you know, I’m an at-risk person and I really shouldn’t be coming in,’” O’Connell said. “And that was the day or two before they actually officially shut it down.”
O’Connell had been living with her parents at the time. Her autoimmune condition further complicated matters when her mother contracted COVID-19. Remaining in their home would have posed a serious threat to her health.
“She was telling me ‘If you can, stay [with your boyfriend],’ so I wound up staying with him for two months before I was actually able to go back to my parents and see them,” O’Connell said. “We would video chat and call each other more regularly. But it was two whole months without actually seeing them face to face. And I ended up having to go to Walmart and buy myself clothes and everything.”
Living with her boyfriend proved to be a workable solution, but it made O’Connell’s efforts to get unemployment benefits complicated. She missed a letter that was sent to her parents’ residence that requested a doctor’s note verifying her autoimmune disorder, thereby justifying her decision to leave her job out of concern for her health. After sending the New Jersey Department of Labor a barrage of emails, she was able to start receiving benefits.
The money was only so helpful. O’Connell went back to work in September, just after the federal fund to give unemployed workers an extra $600 per week ran dry. She now works at an Ulta Beauty location, meaning she comes into frequent contact with customers. O’Connell said that most are safe and responsible, but there are times when she grows concerned for health.
“I had someone last night come in, who kept pulling his mask down to be on the phone, and he was wiping his face with his mask down,” O’Connell said. “And I was physically disgusted. Just seeing him doing that. Usually, the managers are the ones who will handle people who aren’t wearing their masks, but there wasn’t one around at the time.”
Edward Willshire is fortunate enough to not have to worry about a preexisting condition. Yet he still decided that unlike O’Connell, he would not be returning to work.
Willshir graduated from Ithaca College in 2019. He had been working as a ticket-seller at the Maplewood Theater while searching for a full-time job when the pandemic hit. Movie theaters were deemed too unsafe to remain open, and Willshire found himself jobless. Getting on unemployment proved difficult.
“What I found out was that I was under the certain threshold of income for regular unemployment benefits,” Willshire said. “Because I was working part-time I just wasn’t making enough. But at least in New Jersey, there was a specific pandemic unemployment response that is for part-time workers just for pandemic-related reasons, which covers a wider range of people and is more guaranteed for a short amount of time so I’ve been lucky enough to get that.”
Willshire is able to live with his father, whom he is able to rely on for most financial matters. That means he was able to take pause when the theater briefly reopened in September and asked him to come back. Willshire and other employees inquired about what safety measures would be in place.
“[They] provided us with literally just a Google search for what the state requirements are for movie theaters,” Willshire said. “There was nothing specific to our workplace, which concerned me because we’re smaller, independent theater, and we don’t have the resources that some of the bigger chains do… I don’t think we’d be able to afford providing masks and all that kind of stuff. So we’re really working on an honor system. And that was really all the information we got.”
The answer was unsatisfactory, to say the least. Willshire opted not to return. The theater eventually had to close again, and news emerged in December that the owner did not renew the lease. Willshire is still out of work.
Businesses and workers across the country are struggling. Although a COVID-19 vaccine was just approved by the Food and Drug Administration, it remains unclear when the public at large will have access to it.
“You know, if this vaccine is like the miracle vaccine, and like they have the perfect infrastructure to distribute it everywhere, and I can get it ASAP and so can everybody else in the industry, you know, rock on,” said Shapiro. “If that happened tomorrow I’d fucking vote for the guy making it happen. But, you know, that’s not how it’s going to go down. So it’s going take some some serious legwork and time for that to really pay off.”
Until that point comes, Americans have all but been left to fend for themselves as Congress debates a second relief bill, which may not even include a second round of direct stimulus checks. It is difficult to see what the future holds.
For now, workers will have to weather the financial storm and hope for a better tomorrow.
