Gen Z workers will likely bear the brunt of the coronavirus layoffs

• Gen Z workers are getting laid off at rates nearly three times that of their older counterparts as the coronavirus outbreak shakes the United States’ economy, Harris Poll found.
• Young service workers are losing more work hours than any other demographic as restaurants, coffee shops, gyms, fitness studios, and cultural institutions shutter nationwide.
• More than 2 million Americans will file unemployment claims by next week as a part of “an unprecedented surge in layoffs,” Goldman Sachs forecasts state, according to Axios.
• The novel coronavirus has infected more than 246,000 people and killed over 10,000 worldwide, including 212 Americans.
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Coronavirus-related layoffs will disproportionately hurt workers in Gen Z, a new study found.

Members of Gen Z, which Pew Research Center defines as those between the ages of 7 and 22, are three times more likely to report losing their jobs or being put on temporary leave as the novel coronavirus outbreak threatens to send the United States into a recession, Harris Poll found in a survey published Thursday. Young service workers are losing more work hours than any other demographic, Harris Poll found.

Almost a third of the Gen Z workers interviewed had been put on leave by their employers or completely laid off, compared with only 13% of workers between the ages of 35 and 54, according to Harris Poll.

Less than two weeks after the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, restaurants, coffee shops, gyms, fitness studios, and cultural institutions have already begun to lay off employees. Some cities forced the closures while others closed voluntarily as customers embrace social distancing in an attempt to slow the virus’ spread. Air travel has also ground to a halt, leaving airline and hotel employees vulnerable to layoffs as well. More than 2 million Americans will file unemployment claims by next week as part of “an unprecedented surge in layoffs,” Goldman Sachs forecasts state, according to Axios.

States are already reporting massive numbers of unemployment claims, Business Insider's Joseph Zeballos-Roig reported. In Pennsylvania alone, 50,000 unemployment claims were filed on Monday, compared with 14,000 during the first week of March.

Harris Poll surveyed 2,050 adults across the country online between March 14 and 15 and March 17 and 18. The market research firm also weighed participant's responses based on their age, sex, race, education, region, and household income to make their sample more representative of the United States as a whole.

After being first identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December, the novel coronavirus has infected over 246,000 people worldwide and over 10,000 people have died. The US has reported at least 14,250 cases and confirmed 205 coronavirus deaths. Experts say the virus could be even more widespread than the data indicates as the United States has fallen behind every other developed nation on the number of tests performed per capita.