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COVID-19 financial fallout hitting young workers hard: 'We're kind of treading water'

Sun News - 6/20/2020

Jun. 20--Without the coronavirus pandemic, 25-year-old Zechariah McCray says he probably wouldn't have been struggling with money. But now, he's struggling to keep food in the house.

Since the spread of COVID-19 shuttered the doors of restaurants, hotels and bars for weeks starting in mid-March, McCray says he's still trying to play catch-up after losing a few months of work at the South Bay Inn and Suites.

McCray isn't alone. As the economic impacts of the pandemic rattle the country, many young people have fallen behind financially. According to a study by the Pew Research Center, 35 percent of people ages 18-29 lost a job as a result of the pandemic, and 45 percent of people in the same age group reported taking a pay cut. In South Carolina, nearly 14,000 people filed a pandemic unemployment assistance claim during the week of June 8, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

In Horry County, where census data shows nearly 38,000 people ages 20-29 reside, many rely on service jobs that have been hit especially hard since the start of the coronavirus spread. Even after reopening, the financial shock waves persist.

Clubhouse Bar and Grill in North Myrtle Beach closed entirely starting in March, and has gradually reopened. But business has been "a slow-moving train," owner Chris Trimm said. Since reopening entirely, the sales are only bringing in around 50-60 percent of the money expected for this time of year and the tips for servers and bartenders aren't flowing as steadily.

"We're kind of treading water," Trimm, 55, said. "Business is down all across the board."

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The majority of Trimm's employees are under the age of 30, and when the time came to collect stimulus checks or unemployment money, many fell through the cracks.

Under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), people still claimed as a dependent on their parents' taxes won't qualify for a stimulus check, and if they're 18 or older, they don't qualify for the funding meant for children. Many young people also don't qualify for unemployment simply because they haven't been working long enough.

For some of Trimm's employees, that meant losing out on cash flow.

"They were coming back, but they were down six weeks of not working and they were struggling to pay bills," he said.

Others weren't employed at the start of the pandemic. And when lockdown hit in March, job searching became that much harder, according to 19-year-old Isaiah Herd.

"Everything started shutting down and you were kind of on house arrest," Herd said. "So if I can't do anything, how am I gonna pay bills?"

Herd, who didn't qualify for a stimulus check and has been sleeping at friends' places, has since started working at a temp agency. But if it weren't for the pandemic, he says things would have worked out differently for him.

"I would have had my own place and been keeping up with it," he says.

Both Herd and McCray have been using resources provided by Project Lighthouse, a drop-in center through the organization Sea Haven where young people can find help. For McCray, the pandemic continues to be "a little struggle," but he has advice for others in a similar situation.

"Stay humble, stay persistent, stay with faith," he says.

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