'I'm Close To Retirement And I'm Scared:' Spike In Unemployment Claims Hitting Specific Sectors Hard
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Another 94,000 people in Illinois filed for unemployment last week.
It's a 109% increase from the week before. CBS 2's Steven Graves on Thursday looked into what's behind the soaring numbers and what may be ahead.
Carolyn Yacobucci is coming up on one year of being on unemployment.
"I've been pretty anxiety'd out," Yacobucci said.
She held a job as a server in Chicago for years. It was her passion. Now, she's living off of a little more than $400 every two weeks.
"I thought it would be a month or two. But not the whole summer, the whole winter now. And now we're back to spring," Yacobucci said.
The spike of Illinoisans recently joining Yacobucci in unemployment is part of a national trend. Claims rising to 965,000 across the country, the highest number since August. It comes after what experts call a nationwide holiday slump from businesses.
"(Businesses) that were fighting to hopefully have a good holiday season and if they haven't been able to have that are now closing permanently," said Andrew Challenger of Challenger, Gray and Christmas.
Jobs seeing a permanent hit are ones like Yacobucci's, at restaurants, when more were forced to ditch indoor dining. Strong gains are expected to continue in industries like e-commerce, warehouses, health care services and real estate.
"It's taken longer in some ways than people expected, although there's a lot of hope now that we have a vaccine," Challenger said.
For Yacobucci, her day-to-day now consists of making food deliveries. But the pressure to support herself and her daughter is mounting.
"I'm close to retirement. And now I'm scared," she said.
Another industry that's booming now is the supermarket and grocery store business. They've been holding on to current employees and hiring new ones now.
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