COVID-19 has affected everyone in the country in many ways. This Cabrini Day talk focused on the effect COVID had on Latino jobs.
The second wave of COVID-19 is currently hitting the U.S. The U.S now has 11.6 million cases with a quarter of million deaths according to the New York Times, with the number probably going to spike in the next coming weeks. With many still handling the effects from the first wave of COVID even as we head into the second wave of the virus.
COVID-19 has left many people in the U.S unemployed. The unemployment rate has risen from 3.8 percent in February to 13 percent in May, according to Pew Research Center. In those three months it rose higher than two years of the Great Depression.
This year’s theme for Cabrini Day was “COVID-19 and Human Dignity.” The entire event was virtual because of COVID-19 via Blackboard.The sessions were recorded and you can find them on the Cabrini Website. The event was from 10 a.m until 12 p.m. with a total of eight sessions from numerous students on many different topics but all had something to do with COVID.
One of the Cabrini Day talks was “The effect of COVID-19 has on Latinos’ Jobs,”. The speaker of the talk was Gianna Haldaman who is a sophomore biology, pre-med major. The presentation was for ECG-200 class ”Educational Experiences of Latino Students in the U.S.” “I picked this topic myself. I choose it because one thing that people are being impacted right now is losing their jobs,” said Haldaman. “And I could easily mention the financial situation left by it.”
In the presentation, Latinos make up 54 percent of miscellaneous agricultural workers, they make up 55.5 percent of workers in painting, construction, and maintenance jobs. 36 percent of Latinos were unemployed by April because of the virus.
She also discusses how many Latinos were ineligible for the stimulus that came out in April if they are immigrants.
Even before COVID hit Latinos they suffered economic stress because of the lower wages and income they have.
According to a study put out by the Joint Economic Committee of the United States government the median income of a Latino household is $42,500 which is $18,000 less than non-Latino white households.
“From the beginning, I already knew that the Latinx population makes up a decent amount of the economy,” Haldaman said,” so I think just seeing how much they were being impacted shocked me the most, especially women losing their jobs more than men.”
The unemployment for Latino women rose from 5.5 percent to 20.5 percent from February to April of this year according to Pew Research Center. In comparison, the unemployment rate among Latino Men rose from 4.3 percent to 16.9 percent from February to 16.9 percent.
“I just thought it’s crazy how they held our country together,” said Johnessy Hackney, a sophomore psychology major, said. ”Most of them have the essential jobs but got hit a lot harder when COVID hit.”
“Just because it looks lively and safe where we are, doesn’t mean that people aren’t being affected by COVID-19,” said Haldaman.
