Press Releases
Trump Recession Deepens as ~1.5 Million More File for Unemployment, Minority-Run Small Businesses Abandoned
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. recession grew worse as over 1.48 million more Americans filed for unemployment insurance this week, bringing the total number of workers drawing benefits to 19.5 million. Yet the Trump administration continues to take a hard line against extending enhanced benefits that an overwhelming 75% of the public supports. The news also comes amid the looming June 30 deadline to apply for the Trump SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) that has failed to provide support to thousands of small businesses it was created to assist, especially minority-run businesses.
“Another week of staggering loss for workers and small businesses, yet the Trump administration keeps treating the recession the same as the coronavirus — hoping it will all work itself out,” said Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US. “Now is the time for the administration and its allies to turn their attention away from wealthy corporations and Wall Street and finally focus on disappearing small businesses that they have so far left behind.”
WHERE TO START: Congress must turn the page on the secretive, corrupt, mismanaged SBA PPP program and ensure a fairer and more transparent system for getting relief to the small businesses and communities that need it most.
The Trump Recession Only Getting Worse for Millions of Americans:
- CNBC, 6/24: Nearly a quarter of small businesses have considered closing their doors permanently because of Covid-19, and 12% are facing potential bankruptcy.
- NYT, 6/22: As housing courts nationwide begin to reopen and federal stimulus checks are about to end, eviction cases are expected to soar. A recent report by Amherst, an analytics and data real estate firm, found that up to 28 million renters are at risk of eviction.
- Politico Morning Money, 6/24: Black- and Asian-owned small businesses’ have taken disproportionate hits during the pandemic. While cash balances for small businesses were down by 12.7 percent overall in early April, they dropped by 26 percent for Black businesses and by 22 percent for Asian businesses.
- CNBC, 6/24: Millions of Americans will fall off an ‘income cliff’ when extra $600 in unemployment benefits ends next month: Without the extra $600, benefits will revert to the standard state amount, which averaged $378 per week in March. That’s a sudden income reduction of 60%, without another stimulus check to fall back on.
- CNBC, 6/24: Nearly a quarter of small businesses have considered closing their doors permanently because of Covid-19, and 12% are facing potential bankruptcy,
- Wall Street Journal, June 17: PPP Small-Business Loans Left Behind Many of America’s Neediest Firms: From February through May, companies with fewer than 500 employees lost 11.6 million jobs, 18.4% of their pre-crisis workforce.
- Wall Street Journal, June 9: The black unemployment rate … tripled to 16.8% in May. In March and April, 3.5 million African-Americans lost their jobs.
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