(Newswire.net — March 23, 2021) — One year ago, the COVID-19 pandemic turned the entire world on its head. All non-essential businesses were forced to close down, causing millions of Americans to lose their jobs.
In fact, TIME magazine noted that the U.S. Labor Department had recorded over 3.3 million Americans that applied for unemployment benefits within the first month. Some industries still haven’t recovered.
Several unexpected industries are still feeling the effects of the COVID-19 quarantine and all that it entailed. See below for a few industries that you might not have expected to experience a setback from the sizable COVID-19 quarantine and pandemic.
1. Commercial Cleaning Companies
The argument can be made that commercial cleaning companies took one of the biggest blows of any industry during the COVID-19 quarantine and pandemic.
Cleaning companies were affected by the quarantine in two ways. First, if their clients were deemed non-essential, then those businesses closed their doors and either laid off their workers or had them work remotely. Many of which are still doing that today.
Second, if their client was deemed essential, they were attempting to cut costs in any way possible. That meant cutting extra spending on things like outsourced cleaning companies, extra hands in their operations, subcontractors, etc.
Some commercial cleaning companies still haven’t reopened their doors. The owners of these small businesses have been forced to file for unemployment and essentially have their families live off one income (assuming they have a spouse with a job).
Many of them will never financially recover. Now that companies have had their eyes opened to the productivity boost that working remotely can give their staff, there’s less of a need for generic commercial cleaning.
These days, if those cleaning companies aren’t specialized in COVID cleaning products, their clients aren’t offering them business. This leaves the cleaning company with two options: become specialized or lose all of your income.
2. Sports Ticket Sales
Don’t let the billion-dollar TV sponsorships fool you, professional sports teams still rely heavily on ticket sales revenue. It’s not just the price of the ticket they miss out on. They also take a significant cut on concessions, merchandise sales, and other sales-related activity on game day.
Last year, some professional leagues had to cut their season short. Others had to start later than they’d like. But all of them had to deal with limited or zero capacity at one point or another.
This left people who call ticket sales their full-time profession to wonder “are we still going to have a job?”. NFL ticket salesmen and saleswomen were gearing up on 2020 season pass sales when the COVID-19 quarantine initially hit.
For months, these ticket sales representatives were forced to sit at home, answering call after call about whether they’d have a season or not. That’s a question, most of them will admit, they didn’t know the answer to.
For the moment, it would seem things are starting to return to normal. Most leagues are planning for limited capacities, such as the MLB. Others are optimistic they’ll have the full capacity by the time their season starts, such as NCAA Football programs.
Whether that happens or not, there’s no denying that sports teams, and all those that call it their full-time position, are still feeling the effects of the 2020 lockdown.
3. Commercial Airlines
Name any commercial airline company. They were all affected by the 2020 lockdown in a major way. While most passengers are making their way back to frequent travel, there is still a percentage of people that are uncomfortable with the thought.
These days, commercial airlines and smaller airlines are looking to cut costs in any way that they can. If that’s you, then you should consider investing in cost-efficient ground support equipment that will give you a higher return on your investment.
The irony is that the same year the pandemic caused many airlines millions (or billions) of dollars in sales, those airlines witnessed record-breaking holiday traffic across the board. Will that trend continue?
4. Pet Sitters
Though it may have never occurred to you, many people have made a full-time living out of pet sitting and pet walking.
Services such as Rover, DogVacay, Fetch! and others have made it possible to find pet sitters at any time of the day or night. However, when the pandemic hit, suddenly, pet sitting wasn’t needed.
Since people were either laid off or forced to work from home, they were around Lucky the dog most of the time. Even if they were still going into the office, many clients were uncomfortable letting others inside their homes.
5. Car Mechanics
All of a sudden, millions of people were forced to stay home. Social spots were closed, traveling was banned, there was essentially nowhere to drive beside the grocery store.
Less driving meant less need for repairs. That put a lot of car mechanics in a tough position with their business. Local auto shops especially.
Thanks to an uptick in traveling, however, that trend is starting to make a “U-turn”. People are traveling more, getting out of the house, and have more money to spend towards the repairs they were putting off.
We’re All Recovering from the COVID-19 Quarantine Together
Whether you were involved in one of these industries on this list or not, there’s no denying that everyone has felt the effects of the COVID-19 quarantine in some way.
Fortunately, that trend seems to be reversing. Slowly but surely, things are starting to return to normal. The hope is that things continue to trend in that direction.
Be sure to browse our website for more groundbreaking and eye-opening news stories about the COVID pandemic, as well as other topics that you will enjoy reading.