Despite global reopening push, some jobs are gone for good
BANGKOK Factories and stores are reopening, economies are reawakening — but many jobs just aren’t coming back.
That’s the harsh truth facing workers laid off around the world, from restaurants in Thailand to car factories in France, whose livelihoods fell victim to a virus- driven recession that’s accelerating decline in struggling industries and upheaval across the global workforce.
New U. S. figures released on Friday showed a surprise drop in joblessness as some of those who were temporarily laid off returned to work. But it’s only a dent in the recent months’ surge of unemployment, which remains near Depression- era levels. In a pattern repeated across the world, high unemployment means less money spent in surviving stores, restaurants and travel businesses, with repercussions across economies rich and poor.
“My boss feared that since we come from Kibera ( an impoverished slum), we might infect them with COVID- 19, and so he let us go,” said Margaret Awino, a cleaning worker in a Nairobi charity. “I don’t know how I can go on.”
As the virus and now protests across the U. S. have shed new light on economic inequalities, some experts say it’s time to rethink work, wages and health benefits altogether, especially as automation escalates and traditional trades vanish.
Thai chef
When Wannapa Kotabin got a job as an assistant chef in the kitchen of one of Bangkok’s longestestablished Italian restaurants, she thought her career was set.
But five years on, she’s in line with more than 100 other jobless Thais outside an unemployment office.
The government ordered all restaurants closed in March to combat the coronavirus, and 38year- old Wannapa has been spending her savings on food and shelter.
talked to some builders, and everything’s been going to HEPA ( highefficiency particulate arrestance) filtration ... something that will — 100 percent — be eliminating any contaminants in the air,” said Jeremy Coffin, a product manager with New York- based Day & Nite Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Service. “The problem is, it is very expensive to add on to your air conditioning systems.”
‘ Sick buildings’
Emcor Group, with its headquarters in Norwalk, is one of the largest HVAC installation and maintenance companies in the United States. While the company instituted furloughs as commercial buildings closed nationally, Emcor CEO Tony Guzzi indicated the firm is bracing for a big bounce as customers reassess their ventilation systems.
“People will continue to upgrade their HVAC systems, and you not only get better airflow — especially with some of the new control technology — but you also get a substantial energy savings,” Guzzi said in a late- April conference call with investment analysts. “You’re going to be bringing more outside air; and … then you have to treat it.”
Commercial property owners in Connecticut like R. D. Scinto, with a large portfolio in the Shelton area where it is based, and Empire State Realty Trust, which has complexes in Stamford and Norwalk, have already been upgrading to filters capable of trapping up to 75 percent of particles that measure less than one micron — in other words the MERV ( minimum efficiency reporting value) 13 level on a scale developed by the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioner Engineers.
Coffin noted that beyond filters, property owners are exploring other technologies such as ionizers that create static charges to trap particles and whisk them away, and ultraviolet light systems in air coils to kill off harmful microbes prior to circulation. A system configured for multiple technologies can be very effective, he said, increasing the chances, coupled with surface sanitizing, that a room can stay free of microbes.
“You’ll see it — if you open up doors and 500 people walk in, that particulate level jumps — but really fast, it comes back down as [ particles] are being attacked,” Coffin said. “Whether it’s Lennox, Carrier, Trane, Rheem — everyone across the board that I have dealt with — they all are in the engineering process of developing systems that can ... have more air changes through the system, so you are bringing in outside air and you are releasing stale air from the space.”
Carrier CEO Dave Gitlin confirmed last month that landlords are attacking the problem.
“There are a shockingly high number of ‘ sick buildings’ out there, and one of the characteristics of a sick building is the ventilation system,” Gitlin said, sneaking a glance up at the duct feeding into the room where he was leading a conference call. “You look at the room I’m in right now [ and] you would expect a certain number of air changes per hour, say in the 10- to- 15 range. Many buildings around the world ... don’t have that number of changes per hour.”