Workers with and without college degrees have had their hours reduced at similar rates--25 percent and 26 percent, respectively. However, workers who lack a college degree have been hit harder by job losses. Of those without a college degree, 22 percent indicate they lost their job. Among college educated workers, 13% indicate they lost their job. The differences are in line with the findings above and affirm the notion that work has been disrupted for workers from a range of backgrounds, but workers with low socioeconomic status--whether measured by income or education--have been hit hardest.

As the impact of coronavirus progresses, more job losses may follow. This appears to be a fear shared across the income distribution. On a scale from 1 (not at all concerned) to 5 (extremely concerned), the mean level of concern for low, middle, and high income workers hovers around a “little” to “moderate” concern with mean scores around 2.5 for each income group and no significant differences between them. This suggests that although the job losses have been concentrated in largely lower paid, service sector jobs, workers throughout the American workforce are somewhat concerned about their job security as the economic disruption from coronavirus remains a looming threat.

These figures speak to the widespread disruption that coronavirus has had on American workers and how those effects are most significant for low income workers who can least afford to be out of work for long periods of time. Moreover, the results indicate that unemployment rates are likely to continue to climb to rates not seen since the Great Depression, and possibly higher. Moreover, the extent to which workers’ economic dislocation is cushioned by unemployment insurance is highly dependent on which state they happen to live in as unemployment policies vary significantly by state across the country.

The impact of such widespread job loss and the associated effects of economic insecurity portend deep and long-lasting problems for American workers, their livelihoods, and their well-being. Tenuous job security and unemployment have been linked to rising “deaths of despair” by economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton. Their findings, however, came before any sign of coronavirus. This suggests that, absent substantial and perhaps unprecedented governmental intervention in the economy, the profound shock to American workers over the last few months may only be the beginning, with much of the devastation still yet to come.