Economy During the Covid-19 Pandemic

 Ryan Cullen

The Covid-19 pandemic has definitely been detrimental to every aspect of daily life, from needing to wear masks in public

places, people needing to quarantine and unessential work places closing down, etc. These along with many other things are what

Covid-19 brought when it hit the US. Not only these, but the economy was hit very hard as well. This includes the employment

rate dropping to a new low, cargo ships being stuck at docks, unable to unload, etc. These are hitting the economy huge since supply

is not being able to reach businesses because of this back up and the drop of employment rate is detrimental to some

businesses as they might have to change hours or close entirely because of the shortage of workers.

In recent years the employment rate has been slowly going up and was projected to move upward coming into 2020.

This was soon halted after Covid-19 hit and the employment rate dropped from around 60 percent to 51 percent. This not only

was terrible for the economy as people were losing jobs due to stores and businesses being closed and marked as non essential,

but as well as people trying to earn money, with less jobs and less employment means less money for those who need it. This was counter

acted by the government by giving out stimulus checks. But by handing out more and more money to every one will eventually

cause huge amounts of inflation and that money given to people will in turn become useless.

Due to the pandemic hitting strong in the US when it first hit and stores and businesses closing their doors to the public for a

little while, people went to online shopping. During this time many people were buying items online through their favorite

retailers like target, walmart, etc. This led to many shortages in supply because the demand for these online items was going up due to

the pandemic. Skip to today where businesses have reopened their doors and are allowing online and in store shopping, but we

are still getting shortages in supply. This is because there currently is a big back up in cargo ships at ports waiting to be unloaded.

Dani Aguiano states that, “There were a record 73 cargo ships waiting to enter the ports.” This is also due in part by the employment

rate dropping as there are not enough truck drivers to take the supply trucks and deliver them to businesses.

The economy has recently started to come back in that businesses are starting to once again open their doors to the public

and the unloading of cargo ships is being dealt with, but will other things catch up to us because of the pandemic? The cargo ship

back up most likely was not predicated because of the pandemic and therefore is becoming a big problem, especially if it

isn’t fixed soon. What will come next after this problem? What will be the next big thing that Covid-19 brings to us?

Works Cited

Anguiano, Dani. “A Record Number of Cargo Ships Are Stuck Outside LA. What's Happening?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 23 Sept. 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/22/cargo-ships-traffic-jam-los-angeles-california.

Bureau, U.S. Census. “Pandemic Impact on Mortality and Economy Varies across Age Groups and Geographies.” Census.gov, 8 Oct. 2021, https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/03/initial-impact-covid-19-on-united-states-economy-more-widespread-than-on-mortality.html.