Job Loss

Vincent Lowe & Jamisen Shelton

April 4, 2024

There are a lot of jobs in Brookings, but there aren't enough workers to fill some of the jobs. For example, the residents often complain about how long the drive through lines for fast food restaurants are.

Job loss is a problem in Brookings due to the fact that you need money to live. The residents want less homeless people sleeping on the streets.

Megan Ayala, the Senior Manager of the US Chamber of Commerce said, “Over half (52%) of those who lost their full-time job during the pandemic agree that it is essential to return to full-time work as soon as possible, while 26% say it will never be essential.”

Over the years, the town of Brookings became overpopulated as this became a retirement community.  As that has happened, the amount of open jobs has lowered more and more. As that has happened, the population of homeless people in Brookings has risen to ”over 200 homeless people,” Ron Reel of Premier Ocean Properties said. 

When Corona hit, Brookings as a community shut down and the jobs were still scarce. Most of the places where people can work are minimum wage, and even those are scarce. Only the people with degrees and a well-built resumes can get all the higher-paying jobs. 

Our community is also having a homeless problem, which is something that needs to be addressed. Most of the places that people could go either lost their funding or had to close because of COVID restrictions. The community has just overlooked who is in need of help.

As the places in town started closing, churches lost funding for food, clothes, and shelter for the homeless community in Brookings. Once they cut funding, the places that they could go were all cut off except St. Timothy's. 

“St. Timothy’s church gives them an address so they can get assistance,” Reel stated.

The community hasn't helped this problem and probably aren't going to address it for a while. If the places that people can go to are all closed down then what will they do? 

The places that they have to go are all full with people who abuse drugs, or people who abuse the system and don't want to change and become a working member of society. Those who actually need help can't get it for themselves. 

“I think that the first step is that we have to realize we do have a problem. The second is that we have to develop programs to help the homeless,” Reel said.

If the problem is not solved, the people that are in need are being overlooked by the town and nobody is doing anything about it. We as a community need to help them by giving funding to the churches and making sure they spend the money appropriately.

When the pandemic first began in 2020, it made finding jobs harder where people either had to go online to find jobs or they had to find advertisements to apply for that certain job. Ayala states that “19% interviewed with or met with potential employers (down from 28% in November 2021 and 22% in May 2021).”

This shows that 19% of people were scared when the pandemic began, which later on in the years would go on to change from 19% to 28%, and then down to 22%.  This demonstrates the aftermath of what the pandemic did and how much a community can suffer from one huge event affecting every part of the U.S.

After the pandemic some people would either return to a full time job, while the rest were too ill to return to work, retired, or  were affected by the vaccine rule. The vaccine rule meant that if one did not get vaccinated for COVID-19 then they could not return to work. Due to this rule being enabled a lot of people could not return to work and would continue to get ill. 

A solution will be in order.

Photo Credit: https://prospectrockpartners.com/the-hidden-costs-of-layoffs-in-investment-banking-how-downsizing-impacts-remaining-employees/