BottomLine Marketing co-founder and SDSU marketing lecturer Miro Copic discusses some of the week’s top business stories with KPBS News.
Q: California released its latest unemployment numbers. What did we learn about the damage caused by the shutdowns?
RELATED: California’s April Jobless Rate At 15.5%, 2M Jobs Disappear
A: The California jobs report was announced today. 15.5% unemployment rate is just about a 10% jump from last month. The biggest sector was leisure and hospitality where the state lost 46% of its jobs in that sector alone. San Diego was at 15%, so we're just in line or a little bit below the state level. In Imperial County, the unemployment rate was 28%.
Q: What's the outlook for how quickly these jobs will be reabsorbed into the economy as communities start to slowly reopen?
RELATED: Poll: Two-Thirds Expect Return To Normal Will Take 6 Months Or More
A: If we take a look at what's happening now, with the reopening and the rules and regulations so restaurants can be at about 50% capacity, there's going to be a major structural change in the next couple of years. A lot of these companies, to maintain a degree of profitability, they're going to look at automation. What we're going to start seeing potentially is a lot of jobs that require a lot of face-to-face interaction might be replaced by kiosks. You're gonna see from a labor-saving perspective a lot of these jobs are going to go away. One of the concerns we have is what is that going to do structurally to the economy, especially since these jobs have seen wage gains over the last couple of years, where are these employees going to go?
