So tens of millions of people have lost their jobs in the past few weeks because of COVID-19. How many of those job losses are because the job violates a lockdown order (bartenders, hairdressers, etc.) or is in a business that is significantly impacted by shutdown orders (restaurant cook, dentist, etc.) And how many of these layoffs are due to a general slowdown in economic activity? If the former are the bulk of the layoffs, I think things are much more likely to pick up quickly at that blessed time when it’s safer to open up again, but of course who knows when the hell that will be?
(I ask because I heard from a former co-worker yesterday, and she tells me they are still completely slammed with work. I would have thought that skilled employment-based immigration would be impacted negatively in short order, but she says no, anecdotally, they are still getting at least the usual number of requests to open new cases, extensions, etc. This was somewhat reassuring to me - I resigned from my job in mid-February to take some time off to recover from a head injury, and I’m not ready to go back to work just yet, but it would be nice to see some stats that indicated that there might be jobs left for me to apply for when the time comes. All my friends in the field are working from home right now the vast majority of the time, even though legal services are considered “essential” in my state and their employers could easily require them to come in. Luckily the employers are being sensible. Also, a friend has been half-assed condo shopping, and he reports that things in his price range are still being snatched up really quickly. )