California hemorrhaging jobs

SAN FRANCISCO - Nationwide, the labor department reported that in the last five weeks, more than 26 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits. California, the largest state by far, is hemorrhaging jobs.

The dimensions and damage are massive as California recorded another 533,000 plus job losses for the week.  

Including the more than half a million new claims this week, California's four week total now stand at over 3.1 million new unemployment claims. That means that, in the last month, it would be  the equivalent of laying off 78% of every working person, everyone with a job, in the nine Bay Area counties.

“That's far, far beyond anything we've seen in the post-World War II period, said labor lawyer and former EDD Director Michael Bernick. He said even though losses were slightly less this week, the longer the shutdown lasts, the more jobs lost.

Independent contractors and sole proprietors will, for the first time, be able to file claims beginning next Tuesday.

“We have about 1.2 million independent contractors here in California. We don't know how many are going to file," said Bernick. 

But even a rejuvenated Paycheck Protection Program will have limited effect.

“At this point, it's just stabilizing employment. It's not a matter of restarting any significant rehiring today,” said Bernick.

Every day, more small businesses are lost forever.

“We don't know exactly how many, but a number have announced that they don't intend to reopen and this number will increase as long as the shutdown increases,” said Bernick.

Many government agencies, task forces, industries, businesses and organizations are working on recovery plans.

“People are coming up with ideas and strategies, but there's only so much we can do until we have a timetable and the conditions on how we can reopen,” Bernick said.

On Thursday, the East Bay Economic Development Alliance released initial results of a month long survey of businesses that still continues.

“More than half reported that they've lost 60% of their revenue and nearly 40% it was 80% of more,” said Executive Director Stephen Baiter.  

What do the businesses think about the survival of their businesses? “As many as a third of businesses can only last about two months before they have to permanently close,” said Baiter.

There are no silver bullets. “It took us months, even years to get back to the employment levels after the Great Recession and this is far, far worst devastation than that,” said Bernick.

The damage done to Bay Area counties in the month of April won't be out until the middle of May. Experts say the potential consequences of reopening too soon are worse than the economic damage.