Impacts of COVID-19 on Working Americans and Solutions to Protect Them

Labor, Employment Relations, and the COVID-19 Pandemic
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Labor, Employment Relations, and the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the contemporary economic issues in the labor market. Employment drop is the central issue linked to the US economy and relates to services' supply and demand. The emergence of COVID-19 led to decreased demand for services, thus lowering the supply of labor resources (Albanesi & Kim, 2021b). Notably, it also led to contract termination and impacted the US economy adversely. Before the pandemic, inflation was at 2%, which is secure to the country according to Fed's target (Albanesi & Kim, 2021a). However, the high unemployment rate and inflation tremendously reduced United States' GDP. The labor market is a crucial component of the United States' economic growth since it is a source of revenue to the government. The unemployment rate in the United States rose to 14.7% due to closed companies and the shift to a digital economy with employers seeking better ventures (Albanesi & Kim, 2021b). Besides, the pandemic heavily impacts the labor market relations constituting employers and employees by destroying their working relationships. The paper probes impacts of COVID-19 on working Americans and recommends better solutions to protect them.
COVID-19 and the Working Americans
COVID-19 is heavily impacting working Americans due to stringent measures that are in place to curb its effects. There are three types of workers affected by COVID-19, those who have lost jobs facing economic insecurities, essential workers facing health insecurity, and those who continuously work from home. According to Holder et al. (2021), people of color, especially women, suffer increased job losses with high health and security issues. Job security is a major aspect of the labor market; however, with reduced job security from the COVID-19 pandemic, the identified workers record low social assistance and cannot sustain their families independently. People of color face diverse effects of COVID-19 due to increased discrimination in the labor market. Therefore, the increased COVID-19 effects allow employers to take advantage of different populations.
The most conscious way that COVID-19 impacts working Americans is through a spiked rate of unemployment. The increased unemployment continues to deteriorate the labor market regardless of different actions to reinvent employment opportunities. Notably, the lost jobs adversely impact the mental health of workers. Holder et al. (2021) notes that a higher percentage of the Americans who lost jobs due to COVID-19 are exposed to social and health disturbances, especially among people of color. Increased unemployment further leads to reduced revenue to the government due to the reduced tax rate. Job loss is crucial since only a given portion can retrieve their position as the recovery process is implemented. Therefore, necessary policies are appropriate to reduce the adverse impacts of effects.
The unemployment rate caused by COVI9-19 is essential in measuring the labor market stack, a common aspect for determining economic growth. However, it is complex since the workers are not exposed to temporary layoff but complete termination. Other than people of color, another group that feels the impact of COVID-19 in terms of job loss and reduced income are women. Women play a critical role in the United States labor market since they are highly employed in different sectors and businesses (Holder et al., 2021). American women also depend on different small and medium-sized companies, which their shut-down lead to adverse effects. Therefore, it is necessary to consider people of color and American women to address the employment saga.
Policies to Protect Working Americans
Due to the impacts of COVID-19, employers and the government need to focus on specific policies which can protect working Americans. The government should fully open the country under stringent and additional containment measures. The employers also need to remove any remaining domestic restrictions likely to impact the working Americans. Based on policies, the American government needs to focus on fiscal policy. The government should implement the policy by adopting different packages for the COVID-19 victims. The government needs to use the normative act while implementing the policies for the affected businesses. The fiscal policy should also focus o...