The Effects of Pandemic on our Service Industry.

[LakeLocker]

Alright so lets talk about the affects of the pandemic on the service economy.


I.e. a basic rule no reference to oil sector, mining etc.

No talk about things unrelated to the current pandemic.

[Djeffery]

Well, the people who depend on a paycheck from working at Raptors games, as well as associated businesses who depend on those games are going to be out of luck for an undetermined timeframe as the NBA has suspended the season.

[vid]

Join a union.

[LakeLocker]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

Well, the people who depend on a paycheck from working at Raptors games, as well as associated businesses who depend on those games are going to be out of luck for an undetermined timeframe as the NBA has suspended the season.

I"m sure NHL, OHL are next on the list.


Rumor has it, the whole NBA has to be tested.

[Metro-One]

Cruise ship industry, airline industry, hotels, AirBnB, restaurants, sightseeing tours, sporting venues, clubs, bars, cafes, movie theaters, concerts, etc... all fucked.

That is a lot of jobs / people that will be affected, and that will rapidly trickle up and affect the more “stable” industries.

Essentially the entire economy will need to be put on hold. Hopefully only for a few months, possibly for more than a year.

[LakeLocker]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Cruise ship industry, airline industry, hotels, AirBnB, restaurants, sightseeing tours, sporting venues, clubs, bars, cafes, movie theaters, concerts, etc... all fucked.

That is a lot of jobs / people that will be affected, and that will rapidly trickle up and affect the more “stable” industries.

Essentially the entire economy will need to be put on hold. Hopefully only for a few months, possibly for more than a year.

My guess is that within 6 months we'll have voluntary infection camps, where people can decide to get infected as a way of creating herd immunity.

It sounds extreme, but I'd rather get sick for a few weeks than not have any work.

I'm just hoping me and my wife can go back home.

I hate the idea of sitting in my campus apartment and being unemployed for the foreseeable future.

I called my cousin, he and his brother gave up on looking for work. My uncle isn't getting any work from his company as they aren't getting any supplies from china, and my aunt works at the airport in a non critical role.

[Metro-One]

Already losing money myself this month, had a few seminars and presentations cancelled, and where I live has actually been unscathed so far (closest conformed case to me is about 100km away). Getting worried about next month. Essentially being paid to stay home by my primary job this month, but next month...

The one work event that I must do, and will be dodgy, is a week long training seminar in two weeks. We have 119 new teachers scheduled to arrive from overseas and I will be helping in their initial training / climatizing to Japan. Some are already in Japan. Even if no classes to start in April still can’t cancel it as that is also when we arrange their living accommodations (find then rental units), get their phone contracts, medical cards, bank accounts, etc...)

So what to do? 仕方がない！

[Dengler Avenue]

My contract’s up end of April and I don’t know when I will be able to find the next one. Data analyst isn’t exactly considered a service-industry job but with this kind of business climate, it’s bad. In fact that’s what I really meant by my signature. Well at least that means I can really sit down and work on the project with swimmer_spe and NouvelleEcosse.

[vid]

I live a block away from work and have plenty of things to work on from home. I'm sorry my life is going well. It's actually really weird to be the most stable person out of everyone...

[casper]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Cruise ship industry, airline industry, hotels, AirBnB, restaurants, sightseeing tours, sporting venues, clubs, bars, cafes, movie theaters, concerts, etc... all fucked.

That is a lot of jobs / people that will be affected, and that will rapidly trickle up and affect the more “stable” industries.

Essentially the entire economy will need to be put on hold. Hopefully only for a few months, possibly for more than a year.

In a month or so Vancouver and Victoria should be into cruise ship season. This i going to be a problem year for the tourism industry.

[urbandreamer]

There's going to be many missed rent cheques, empty airbnbs and coffee shops closing. Maybe Vancouver will become affordable?

[Metro-One]

Quite the opposite will occur I suspect. Just as the economy was gaining some real traction in increasing wages.

Also just thought of those who have weddings and other sick events planned this spring... There are some more industries to worry about.

In the end this will affect essentially everybody in some way.

[ssiguy]

Obviously the service sector is going to get hammered and not just due to vastly fewer tourists. People not going to the malls, concerts, sporting events, festivals, parades, hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, open houses, bars, nightclubs, public schools, libraries, universities & colleges, community centres, the gym, the movies, conventions,...………..this represents millions of workers. Now multiply it by 3 to get the number of workers who support those industries with food distribution, agriculture, cleaning personnel and supplies, alcohol, art, entertainment, taxis, public transit, technical services, music, consulting, clothing, TV & radio coverage, banking, computer services, equipment, transportation, internet, gasoline....the numbers are truly staggering.

The service sector is often ridiculed as being nothing more than a place of low wage jobs but it's impact on nearly every other sector of our consumer based economy is enormous and a plunge in the service sector would have devastating ripple effects throughout the rest of the economy. A collapse in the lowly service sector would throw millions of Canadians out of work.

[casper]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Obviously the service sector is going to get hammered and not just due to vastly fewer tourists. People not going to the malls, concerts, sporting events, festivals, parades, hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, open houses, bars, nightclubs, public schools, libraries, universities & colleges, community centres, the gym, the movies, conventions,...………..this represents millions of workers. Now multiply it by 3 to get the number of workers who support those industries with food distribution, agriculture, cleaning personnel and supplies, alcohol, art, entertainment, taxis, public transit, technical services, music, consulting, clothing, TV & radio coverage, banking, computer services, equipment, transportation, internet, gasoline....the numbers are truly staggering.

The service sector is often ridiculed as being nothing more than a place of low wage jobs but it's impact on nearly every other sector of our consumer based economy is enormous and a plunge in the service sector would have devastating ripple effects throughout the rest of the economy. A collapse in the lowly service sector would throw millions of Canadians out of work.

I am with a software company (and technically writing software is considered manufacturing). We are going into cash conservation mode instead of growth mode for the next little while until we understand what the impact is on our customer spending decisions. Most of our revenue is out of the US and spending is in Canada.

That limits travel, maybe we don't have as many catered lunch events, etc. Our customers are happier doing video conferences instead of face to face meetings. That blows away taking customers out to lunches and trade shows.

[LakeLocker]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Quite the opposite will occur I suspect. Just as the economy was gaining some real traction in increasing wages.

Also just thought of those who have weddings and other sick events planned this spring... There are some more industries to worry about.

In the end this will affect essentially everybody in some way.

X2 I suggest people looking into the concept of deflation.

It's worst than rapid inflation apparently and it is about to happen.

[LakeLocker]

Originally Posted by vid

I live a block away from work and have plenty of things to work on from home. I'm sorry my life is going well. It's actually really weird to be the most stable person out of everyone...

Same here, me and my wife have a years worth of savings.

I think I'll be speeding up my efforts to be competent in robotics(learning to code etc).

Hopefully I can do some unpaid work(telecommute) by summers end and be set up for when things reverse.

[Acajack]

My kids are teenaged students who have part-time jobs in the service sector (restaurants, cafés, etc.). They haven't been affected yet and are still getting hours but I've told them they might want to prepare for a spring and summer without much work.

I also had an outing this week in a public place that is normally attended by about 75 people. There is no panic here in my city but the turnout was clearly down from what it usually is. (Though I've seen even lower turnouts in the pre-COVID-19 era.) Everyone there was kinda snubbing their noses at Coronavirus (it's that kind of crowd) by initiating more physical contact than usual - hugging instead of shaking hands, for example.

[MonkeyRonin]

I work in architecture/interior design, mostly on small-scale residential builds and renovations for rich people. Work is still steady, though there have been some construction delays due to supply chain disruptions on things coming from Italy and China. But, barring a city/province/country-wide lockdown I'll likely be at work for the foreseeable future.

My girlfriend manages a bar/restaurant/venue though, and they've seen a bit of a loss in business in the past couple weeks. No layoffs or anything yet, but if things get much worse it could certainly be a problem for them. There's also a much greater risk there of having to shut down due to coming in contact with someone with the virus.

[niwell]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

My girlfriend manages a bar/restaurant/venue though, and they've seen a bit of a loss in business in the past couple weeks. No layoffs or anything yet, but if things get much worse it could certainly be a problem for them. There's also a much greater risk there of having to shut down due to coming in contact with someone with the virus.

I know quite a few people in various positions in the industry and how tenuous it can be at the best of times. Wonder if there will be some form of property tax abatement (would likely have to be Provincial) to assist businesses if things get worse. On the somewhat plus side, landlords won't have much to gain by evicting these types of establishments with a looming recession, at least in areas outside the downtown core. That doesn't help employees in the meantime as much though.

I'm also worried about friends in the music industry, as there's no easy way to assist when your primary income stream revolves around touring, or in this case managing those who do tour.

Working for the provincial government I'm sure we'll be one of the last ones to have the office shut down, though even still there's been some communication about relaxed rules for working from home.

[LakeLocker]

Originally Posted by niwell

I'm also worried about friends in the music industry, as there's no easy way to assist when your primary income stream revolves around touring, or in this case managing those who do tour.

There's always opportunity, I'm sure there'll be a boom of parents putting their children and themselves(yay forced retirements) through lessons.