The COVID-19 pandemic that has killed about 485,000 Americans since last March is destroying not only lives but livelihoods.

Among those hardest hit by the viral tsunami are women, who traditionally have held lower-paying jobs in hospitality, child care and social services, all of which have born the brunt of restrictions and temporary closures.

“Leisure and hospitality have been hardest hit. It’s been a dramatic drop, and Monroe County was probably one of the most affected,” said PA CareerLink Carbon County Site Administrator Samuel T. Hellen.

His counterpart in Monroe County, Deborah Harrison, is traveling uncharted territory in the effort to get women back to work in a county heavily dependent on tourism and its related businesses such as hotels.

On the front lines

Area unemployment numbers

The most recent information, for the week ending Feb. 6, about unemployment rates in the Times News coverage area:

CARBON COUNTY: 191 people filed first-time claims. Of those, 64.9 percent were men and 35.1 percent were women. The top three job categories were construction, health care and social assistance, and manufacturing.

SCHUYLKILL COUNTY: 488 people filed first-time claims. Of those, 68.6 percent were men and 31.4 percent were women. The top three job categories were construction, manufacturing, and health care and social assistance.

MONROE COUNTY: 328 people filed first-time claims. Of those, 57.6 percent were men and 42.4 percent were women. The top three job categories were accommodation and food services, construction, and retail sales.

LEHIGH COUNTY: 846 people filed first-time claims. Of those, 57 percent were men and 43 percent were women. The top three job categories were construction, administrative and waste services, transportation and warehousing.

NORTHAMPTON COUNTY: 560 people filed first-time claims. Of those, 65.7 percent were men and 34.3 percent were women. The top three job categories were accommodation and food services, administrative and waste services, and health care and social assistance.

Source: Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry

“What we’re seeing right now is very untypical. No one has gone through this before,” Harrison said.

The unemployment situation “all comes down to schools and child care. That’s how it affects women more,” she said.

The jobs crisis struck weeks after the novel coronavirus surfaced.

In the week ending on March 21, 2020, 1,251 people applied for initial jobless claims. Of those, 75.1 percent were women and 24.9 percent were men. Most were in accommodations and food services, followed by education and then health care and social services.

“When it first happened in March, it hit a number of industries. Everybody was slammed,” Harrison said.

The gradual reopening helped somewhat, but with the closures of schools and child-care centers, women were in a tough spot.

Without child care, working was difficult. And someone had to stay home to supervise children as they learned via virtual classes.

Most often, that task would fall to women, who typically earn less than men and so were more likely to be the ones to stay home.

Those in hospitality jobs usually had a little more flexibility, and that allowed them to hold down at least part-time jobs while caring for their children.

“But that industry was hit hard by the pandemic. So if they weren’t able to get to work, the income wasn’t there any more,” Harrison said.

For child-care workers, it created a vicious cycle.

If women weren’t working, there was less need for child care, so many of them closed. Because care workers tend to be overwhelmingly female, that threw even more women out of work.

Getting unemployment benefits was slower because so many people were out of work.

“We’re still feeling the effects. Of the businesses that had to close, many were child care. So many were unable to stay afloat because so many people weren’t working,” she said.

Building the road to employment

Although the unemployment has improved somewhat, the state’s numbers are still high. As of Feb. 6, a total of 32,736 people had filed for first-time jobless benefits. Of those, 61.3 were men and 38.7 were women. Most of the job losses were in construction.

The solution isn’t as simple as it might seem.

“People lost jobs. They want to go back to work, but they need child care and, if they have health issues, they’re worried about safety. There are a lot of factors at work here,” Harrison said.

“We’re working to get people back into the workforce, but we’re still grappling with the situation of people being able to pay rent and put food on table.”

Getting people back to work will take awhile, she said. But CareerLink is helping by steering the unemployed to social services agencies and nonprofits such as United Way and food pantries.

“We direct people to get what they need to survive first. Then we focus on job training,” she said. “You’re just not going to have success if you don’t tackle the basic needs first.”

Currently, PA CareerLink is open by appointment only.

“People aren’t really ready to come piling into the office looking for work. It’s not the normal downturn; there are so many factors affecting it,” Harrison said.

“People are in survival mode, but that’s going to move on,” she said.

“We’re hitting a year (since COVID-19 surfaced). It was just unprecedented. But now the vaccines are coming out, and that will help. It’ll take a little time, but we’ll come back. We’ll really step it up once people feel safe and healthy.

“Putting people into jobs - that’s what were here for.”

Unemployment remains high

Statewide, the numbers of women applying for first-time unemployment benefits peaked the week ending on March 21.

Then, with 90,539 people applying for first-time benefits, 66 percent were women and 34 percent were men, according to the state Department of Labor and Industry.

Since then, the percentages have typically stayed within several percentage points of each other, although the unemployment rate remained high at 6.7 percent as of December 2020, the latest data available.

That’s up from 4.6% a year ago.

More men are out of work, 61.3 percent of those filing, than women, who made up 38.7 percent, mostly due to winter construction slowdowns.