Biden touts $28.6 billion restaurant relief program
President Joe Biden made a Cinco de Mayo taco run as he highlighted his administration’s $28.6 billion program to help eateries that lost business because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, our nation’s restaurants were some of the first and the worst hit,” Biden said in remarks Wednesday, the anniversary of Mexico’s victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.
The president stressed that restaurants have historically been one of the first rungs on the economic ladder, a chance to move upward that was undermined by the virus.
“For 1 in 3 Americans, a restaurant provided their first job,” he said at the White House. “This industry provided more opportunity for minority managers than any other industry in America. This is an industry where the staff feels like family and often is family.”
The aid for eateries is part of the Biden administration’s broader $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.
The coronavirus outbreak was especially brutal for restaurants. America lost nearly 2,700 dining establishments through last summer, according to the Labor Department. About 1.8 million food service jobs also have been lost, though the sector has been gradually regaining jobs since last May.
Researchers at the not-for-profit Opportunity Insights found that consumer spending at hotels and restaurants plunged more than 60% in April 2020 compared with the start of that year. Spending is still down 4.5% compared with before the pandemic.
Under the Biden relief program, which started accepting applications on Monday, restaurants and bars can qualify for grants equal to their pandemic-related revenue losses, with a cap of $10 million per business and $5 million per location.
Business owners seeking to apply for the program can receive more information at sba.gov/restaurants.
Jobless claims drop, backlog rises
California workers filed fewer unemployment claims last week, but the state’s labor agency is falling behind again as it works to whittle down a mountain of backlogged claims, separate government reports show.
Workers statewide filed 71,200 firsttime claims for unemployment during the week ending May 1, which was down 7,400 from the 78,600 claims filed in the week ending April 24, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday.
However, the backlog of unemployment claims that have yet to be paid or resolved by state labor officials remains steep at 1.05 million as of April 24, a report from the Employment Development Department shows.
The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid nationwide fell last week to 498,000, the lowest point since the viral pandemic struck 14 months ago and a sign of the job market’s growing strength as businesses reopen and consumers step up spending.
Thursday’s report showed applications declined 92,000 from a revised 590,000 a week earlier. The number of weekly jobless claims — a rough measure of the pace of layoffs — has declined significantly from a peak of 900,000 in January as employers have ramped up hiring.
Google wants to have employees back in offices
Google will move away from largely remote operations and return to campusfocused employment with most workers onsite for at least a few days a week, the company announced last week.
Employees can apply to be fully remote, or move to other offices, but those who do may see their compensation cut, the blog post indicated. Google has said most employees could continue working from home until September, and the latest announcement did not change that timeline.
Employees whose presence at company sites is not required daily will be put on a hybrid schedule, spending about three days in the office and two days “wherever they work best,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in the Wednesday post. Office time will be focused on collaboration, he added. Employees’ product areas and job functions will guide when they come to the office to gather with their teams, he said.