By Mike Brown

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

At the time of this writing, the latest numbers from the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine attribute more than 2.5 million cases and 171,810 deaths worldwide to the Coronavirus pandemic. 

In the United States, those figures are 788,920 and 42,946, respectively. In Canada, they are 36,831 and 1,690. 

The devastating loss of life due to the COVID-19 virus will continue to get worse in the coming weeks and months. Another consequence of this global pandemic that is also continuing to worsen is the financial damage faced by so many everyday consumers. 

As markets plunge at an unprecedented pace and social distancing measures close down countless businesses that have been forced to lay workers off, nearly every person’s personal finance situation is taking on water and managing those finances can be tough. 

LendEDU, a personal finance company, tracked how the Coronavirus pandemic is impacting the financial lives of everyday people. The company conducted two surveys, each of 1,000 adult respondents, over the course of two weeks, and the survey-to-survey results painted an increasingly gloomy financial picture for most consumers. 

In two weeks, Unemployment due to Coronavirus doubles

LendEDU’s first Coronavirus survey was conducted on March 18, and it found that 6% of poll participants had lost their jobs due to the Coronavirus, while 35% had seen no changes to their jobs, 13% had their hours partially cut, and 11% had been furloughed. 

Two weeks later, LendEDU’s second Coronavirus survey that was conducted on April 1 revealed much different results to the same question. (See graph at the top of this blog). The percentage of people that had been laid off due to the Coronavirus pandemic doubled from survey-to-survey from 6% to 12%. Continue Reading…