Guest in saying there is a lot of hurt, a lot of pain, a lot of americans are struggling. Is aso see and it paradox in the data for those who have jobs, they are actually doing pretty well. To take the report further, we looked at those people with jobs , and most of them are very high on what their employers have been doing in terms of giving them guidance. They also feel their employers have done a lot to protect them overall. Again, a lot of new surveys on whether or not people like to work remotely. It turns out that the classes are greater than the minuses. A lot of people would like to work remotely every day. Host you looked at several areas in your study. I want to talk a little bit about those areas with you. One of the questions you had for the furloughed and the employer shut down and the laid off, you asked about, have you personally experienced the following . Have you been temporarily furloughed orcs or suspended from work . Are you being laid off . Almostumbers seem to be really, outstanding not outstanding, but those numbers seem to be concerning. 11 said their business was shutting down completely. 60 said they were being laid off. Tell us a little bit about those numbers. Guest those are very worrying numbers. I agree with your previous cast that there is a lot of pain out there. Two major pollsters have tracked these trends every week since march. The numbers, again, are very concerning and reflect the deep hurt we are seeing. Those are very high numbers for people who have been permanently let go, permanently lost their jobs. For those who have been laid off , a lot of people do not think they are going to be rehired. Host going back to that report. Here is another question that was asked. Have you experienced any of the following changes to employment . These are for people who had jobs, and they were asked about their jobs. How many people had their hours reduced . How many people have been temporarily laid off . Numbers, 15 hose of the people who still have their jobs had their hours reduced. 10 have been temporarily laid off. And 3 have been permanently let go. Those were from people who still had jobs. What do these numbers tell us . Guest these numbers tell us that we have a very long way to go. Again, i think we learn from the employment report yesterday that half of those jobs have come back, have have not. Certainly the numbers in these surveys reflect what the government reports are suggesting. Theyre telling us there is a very, very long way to go and that a lot of people have been deeply hurt. Host lets talk about those numbers a little bit. For the people who still have their jobs but are still furloughed or have had their hours produced, can they expect changes in their work status Going Forward . Can they expect to get their hours back . Can they expect to be moved off furloughed or do we see things getting worse between now and the end of the year . Guest for those workers there is much more pessimism than there was in april. That is what the survey shows. We also see that the picture is not entirely bleak, because in those surveys a small number say they did get rehired. That is positive news. There is a lot of competing storylines in the data, overall. Host let me remind our viewers that they can take part in this conversation. Youre going to open up special lines for this conversation. Unemployed because of this pandemic and you are unemployed right now, i want to hear from you. The telephone number for those who are unemployed is going to be 202 7488000. Underemployed, if your hours are being cut, if you have a job that used to be fulltime but you were forced to move to parttime, if you are underemployed your numbers going to be 202 7488001. If you still have a job and if you are still employed throughout this pandemic but you want to talk about this issue as well, i want to know how you feel about your job. Are you worried you are going to have your hours cut . Are you worried you are going to be furloughed . Hat number is 202 7488002 of thosent fit in any categories. And you havetired, another employment situation, maybe you own a business and want to talk about this issue the number for everyone else is going to be 202 7488003. Keep in mind, you can always text us at 202 7488003. We are always reading on social at twitter and on facebook. One of the things you looked at is comparison between the attitude of the American Worker now and attitudes of the American Worker back during the Great Recession. Is there any difference between the attitudes of workers then during the Great Recession and workers now during the coronavirus pandemic . Guest the attitudes we are seeing today are very similar to the attitudes we saw during the Great Recession. I think we know how long it took america to recover from the Great Recession. If you look at peoples views about whether they are thriving or falling behind, again, a little bit more optimism in recent months, but again, a lot of people say they are falling behind. If you ask them, have you lost a job, is it likely you will lose a job, are there good jobs in your community . Again, doubles of pessimism similar to what we saw in the Great Recession. Host lets let our viewers take part in this conversation. Quita is from st. Louis, missouri. Caller good morning. I am an assistant manager at portmans. Closing, then opening, then closing. It caused us to go bankrupt and i am out of a job because they had to let all of us go. That is really something we havent talked about yet this morning. Employers who open and then there is a surge of covid19 in their community. They close down, they open again , they have to have limited hours. How is all of that affecting the attitudes of American Workers right now . Guest i think it is the uncertainty. Again, i am sorry for your collar. Uncertainty is driving the pessimism we see in polls today. Dont speak to people who have been hired and let go, hired and let go. Does contribute to the uncertainty we are seeing in these Public Opinion polls. Host as part of your study you ask people about whether they know anyone personally who has been laid off from work due to covid19. Half of the people who responded said they did not know anyone who had been laid off. The rest of the people that were asked in that survey said either they had been laid off themselves, a Family Member had been laid off, or they knew of someone in their circle, in their orbit, that have been laid off. It seems that for we can fully half of the country knows someone or has been laid off themselves because of the pandemic. But to those numbers tell us . Guest that is an extraordinary number. It has been remarkably consistent in that survey. It is a very big number. Again, you have this picture i was describing of the economy where so many people are struggling. So many people know someone who is struggling. There are a lot of people who have not been affected, at least thus far, by the pandemic. Host lets talk to deborah, who is calling from new haven, connecticut. Debra, good morning. Caller good morning. Im thank you for taking my call. I am selfemployed. Can you hear me . I heard a beep. Host go ahead, deborah. Caller thank you. I am selfemployed. Was,f the questions i had does the data include the selfemployed . And connecticut they have had a lot of programs to help us. After march we did not have most of the childcare providers because i belong to some facebook groups, childcare providers. We stick together and keep each other abreast of what is going on. Connecticut has done a pretty decent job of making sure that we have money for when we have to close down. In the middle of march, i didnt have any children. With partialafloat payments. For three months i was ok. I kept the mortgage paid, lights on, that kind of thing. Interestingreally is issued as childcare providers, because we could have decided to work and take care of what they call frontline workers, which connecticut was really good about giving us incentives. Incentives to stay open and take those. Services to frontline workers. Its been pretty good not great, but it has kept me afloat. It hasnt been a serious hardship on me. What i dont see in those figures because there are a lot of selfemployed people. Our income really does depend drawwhether or not we can income from that sector that is working. Host go ahead and respond. Guest the data do include people who are selfemployed. When they asked those questions they definitely include the selfemployed. Deborah, you point to something that i think is very important. People are pretty negative about what the federal government is doing. They applauded the first relief package and they gave bipartisan credit for that in the opinion polls. The state governments consistently have done better than the federal government in Public Perceptions of handling coronavirus, but, yes, the data do include the selfemployed. Host in our earlier segment how was talking with heather long about the jobs report. I asked her about whether people were getting the same job back or were people getting new jobs because they could not get their previous job back . That was one of the questions you asked during one of the questions we see in your report that was asked. I want to talk about that. Heres the question. Would you or the person in your household be able to go back to the same job . Back in april, 78 of people said they definitely wore probably will go back to their same job. Definitelyobably will not. 5 in may said they were already back at the same job. Lets move forward to august 20. The number of people who think they definitely or probably go back to their same job they had drops to 39 . People who say they probably or definitely will not get their same job has jumped up to almost half, to 49 . 11 of people say they are already back at that same job. It looks like those attitudes about whether they are able to get their job back changed tremendously over the summer. Guest they certainly did. A lot more pessimism about eating able to be rehired. No question about it. There is a bit of a silver lining. Some people have been able to get their old jobs back. That topline number going from 78 saying they thought they would be rehired to the much lower number suggest the pessimism we are seeing is widespread. Host does the president ial campaign have anything to do with these numbers or is this these economic concerns, these attitudes about working, is a completely separate from the politics during an Election Year . Guest i dont think you can separated. The pollsters dont necessarily make the connection. Some posters to ask questions about which candidates are able to handle the economy, and their President Trump has a slight lead over joe biden. That is the area President Trump is light consistently throughout the year. That said, if you ask about Congress People are very negative about how congress is handling this. As i said earlier in the year, they gave bipartisan credit to democrats, republicans, congress, the white house for that first relief package. Now they are giving bipartisan blame. There is definitely a connection. Yearsknow, in election the economy is a very important issue. People will be taking that into consideration. Health care also an important issue that affects coronavirus. Again, this is an area where joe biden has a lead in the polls. Hisont know too much about approach to coronavirus, so they are both confident and uneasy. They are split on that score about how he would handle it. He has an advantage on handling health care. Host lets talk to jonathan who was calling from seattle, washington. Jonathan is currently unemployed. The morning. Caller good morning. Thanks for taking my call. It is the second time i am calling. I called once five years ago. Contractor. Ing as a the pandemic hit we were all to work from home. We were working from home for about a week, then we all got put on a Conference Call and about 300 of us all contractors got laid off. We were told we were going to go back. My recruiter texted me a few months ago and said, hold onto your computer, old onto your badge. Youre going to go back in. At some point. Then two weeks ago i received a text from her that they are not going to bring anybody back in. Foreseeable future as to when they are going to make that decision. I also have a brother who is working at uber. These are all tech jobs, design, development. He was there for about a month or two and then they laid off all of their contractors. Guest yes, jonathan. You see the ripple effects of coronavirus in this economy. The initial optimism that this recovery hasshaped not panned out, though many jobs are coming back. Said, again, there has been a lot of pain and im very sorry you have been let go or laid off for the time being. And that your brother is having the same kind of problems. These are the ripple effects we are feeling everywhere in this economy. Host what does doing surveys and polls about American Worker attitudes, what does that tell us . Why do we do these polls . What can we learn from this type of information . Guest i would like to give the pollsters some credit. We mostly hear about election polls, that this year the major pollsters have done an extraordinary effort tracking our feelings about coronavirus, our experiences with it, and our views about jobs, finances. They have covered virtually every aspect of what is going on. This informs decisions that policymakers make, but i have in thebeen interested ordinary life of americans. I think it tells you so much about what makes a complex public tech. Polls are very well suited to that. The election polls get the most attention and they are invaluable in an Election Year but what we are looking at in terms of Health Aspects and the financial aspects of coronavirus, i think give us a much richer picture of the society. Host lets go to jack who was calling from champaign, illinois. Good morning. Caller good morning. Im glad you got the speaker here. Maybe they to see ask this question, maybe they didnt. Who willnt of people be inclined to vote who may not have voted in the past just because of they were laid off or, you know, they know they have been affected . Lets see, the probability of voting as higher s year, or lower core lower, or about the same . Guest there is much more interest and excitement about the selection we have seen about any recent election. I cannot tell you specifically to coronavirus, because enthusiasm was high even before the pandemic struck. Much higher than it had ever been in the recent Election Years. We are expecting a very substantial increase in turnout in 2020. Host we talked a lot about attitudes of American Workers toward their jobs. Lets talk about attitudes of American Workers toward their employer. We have a pole here that, back during the beginning of the pandemic in march, the question was asked of employees, who they trust their employer to look out for the best interests of them and their families . The number seems to have stayed pretty much the same from march all the way through august. Back in march it was 68 . In august it was 70 . The question of, the people who responded, they do not trust their employer to look out for their best interest was actually a little higher back in march. It was 32 in march, and now it dropped to 29 . What can we tell from this number . Guest i think that is one of the most interesting questions and all of the surveys. This is a poll taken every week. It is a panel study. They are talking to the same people over long period of time. I was very surprised by the high levels of confidence in ones employer overall. That was much higher than confidence in the federal government, much higher than peoples confidence in their state government. It wasnt quite as high as local health care workers. I was stunned to see the number being very close to peoples very high regard they have for local health care workers. I think this is one of the most interesting findings that we reviewed. Have a number in the 70s. As we now have with that question, you dont see 70 of americans agreeing on something. This is people with jobs. They do believe their employers are stepping up. Host lets go back to our phone lines and talk to cassie, was calling from fremont, california. Good morning. Caller i have two jobs. One is that the library. Teacherr is substitute for fremont unified. I thought i was going to use my job at fremont this week. Hired back. I have worked there a long time. Subs back, going on date of hire. I have been working, except i have had to get a new computer to do that home learning. I had some trouble working it. The teacher did not put the zoom link in properly. I cannot access it and they gave me a unified email and i had not learned to use that yet. I went over to the high school here, kennedy high school, and they did not want me at the schools. They sent me home and wrote me up as a noshow in my computer because it was not working properly. I really thought i was going to lose my job. I didnt, but i did discover in the next class that the teacher is having a learning curve to get the learning distance going because that is all on their computer. It is kind of interesting. Some of the kids are having trouble accessing. They have wifi, they have to be able to do the things that the teachers asked them to do also. Anyway, i am thankful for my jobs. Because i was sent home in march, i had a little bit of unemployment from that. Anyway, i think it is a learning curve, but very difficult sometimes. Guest there is no question that the transition has been rocky for many people. And very, very different. We are all adjusting to a new world. It has certainly had its challenges. Host one of the other issues we peoplesur report is thoughts about their job prospects in the future. This chart that goes all the way back to 2001 ask people if they think it is a bad time to find a quality job or a good time to find a quality job. 2001. All the way back to in 2150 56 thought it was a bad time to find a quality job. Timehought it was a good to find a quality job. See, numbers, as you can go up and down, but as we get to this year we see that 77 of aople right now think it is bad time to find a quality job and 22 of people think it is a good time to find a quality job. We see how those numbers just really shifted over the last few years. What does that tell us about the attitude of the American Worker right now . Guest that chart is a real roller coaster. As you correctly noted, people were very pessimistic during the 2008 and 2009 especially. Incompetence increased sharply and before the pandemic we were seeing extraordinary numbers about confidence and peoples belief that it was a good time to find a quality job. As soon as the pandemic struck, that number just plummeted. That is where we are today. Again, are very pessimistic. That chart actually we didnt show that chart that actually goes back to the 80s 1980s. We are seeing pessimism at a level we saw in 2008 and 2009. Pessimism, for those who remember, is similar to what it was in the 1982 recession. Three very big hits for our economy and pessimism has been reflected in those poles. Host lets go to john was calling from st. Louis, missouri. Good morning. , and thanklo, cspan you for taking my call. My father is a worker. They are not safe. There is no social distancing and anything else. Administration not only does not care about workers, but students and teachers. I wanted to say that we cannot trust this government anymore, thousands are killed just in one day. How can we face this disgusting situation except removing him from the office . I didnt mention the bad situation of joblessness, because it is Crystal Clear for all americans. Thank you. Questions, there is no that people are very dissatisfied with the way the federal government has handled the pandemic. We didnt go into the lyrical aspect of this in this particular report, but i look at many other polls that make that point emphatically. That said, not to disagree with the caller, but when you ask most americans about what your reporter is doing, is he trying to make sure there is social distancing, that you have ppe, most people with jobs are saying their employers are doing that, but i guess your Family Members place of work that is not happening. Cynthia. s go to good morning. Caller good morning. How are you . Host just fine, go ahead, cynthia. Caller im calling for a little different things. I work in health care. Of course, nobody got laid off. Y hired people host cynthia, did we lose you . Caller im right here. Host keep going. Caller they hired people instead of laying off people because it was so bad and we had covid and everything else. They did the best thing. A lot of the staff had the covid. I didnt get it, but a lot of the workers sorry, the workers and patients. Time. Was just a bad it was a bad time. I hope it doesnt come back. Host go ahead and respond. Guest i certainly agree. This was a terrible time for the country and we are not out of it yet. Lets hope that a vaccine is on its way, one that can be deployed first to healthcare workers and essential personnel. That will be very important. You in the Health Care Field have done such an extraordinary job in this difficult time. Host talking about the attitudes of the American Worker. This is one of the charts that surprised me. As we are moving forward, the question was, thinking about the next 12 months, the person was asked, how likely do you think it will be that you will lose your job or be laid off . This chart goes back to 2001. If we look at it right now, 25 full fourth of people asked think they will be laid off or lose their job within the next year. That is a high number for people who have jobs right now, but think their jobs are going away sometime in the next 12 months. Guest you see an enormous amount of anxiety right now. That is what that number reflects, i think. This goes on and on. Many people are becoming more pessimistic. It is pushed that number up to 25 . I think that is significant and something public policymakers need to be aware of. Host speaking of public policymakers, you work at aei. What do you hope policymakers take from this report about the attitudes of American Workers . Guest what a wonderful question. I hope they will study it because there is an enormous amount of Interesting Data here. They will see many people are struggling, twice as many as those who are getting ahead. The vast majority saying they are keeping pretty stable, as a number of your callers have suggested. There is a number of pain and i think the poles documented well. Poles should not be used to make policy. They are too blunt an instrument. I think they can tell us about what makes a public tip. That is what i hope policymakers will use it for. I hope they can inform in some general but not specific sense what americans are concerned about. We did not focus on Health Care Concerns, we certainly did focus on the employment aspect. The Health Care Concerns are also very great right now. Host lets see if we can squeeze a couple of more callers in. Lets start with rich who was calling from madison, indiana. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am very conservative, which you were the only news channel that is not biased in any way. He was a host ive seen you take some crazy calls and you are very professional. Guest i ask your wonder if it is different in small towns. I am in a small town and it seems like businesses keep putting out more hiring signs. Guest i think that is a reflection of the fact that jobs are coming back. He would see that, i think, because it is so apparent in small towns. None of the data i looked at i didnt have an opportunity to break it out by urban, rural, suburban but that is an Encouraging Development and one i think was reflected in job numbers yesterday. From lets go to heidi davenport, florida. Caller good morning. My daughter in california is one of the people who did change careers as a result of the virus. She was in the wine and spirits previously, and now she is studying to be an emergency medical technician. She is very happy with her change. I would also like to say that with regards to the last caller, sometimes it surprises me that there is not more news about the businesses that have been booming, like construction work and people making Home Improvements and all during this time. Because i traveled quite a bit in northeast in june and i was so surprised at how much construction and all is being done. I guess the people that are working and staying home are using their money for builders and construction work, Home Improvements. I just think that is wonderful and im sure there are other businesses, like plexiglas businesses, that are doing well. Guest there is no question that is the case. We are seeing that in some of the polls. Not in polls i included in this report, but that is the case. You see it in terms of real estate and construction, as your callers suggested. There are some businesses that have weathered this pandemic very well. Questions interesting asked about whether or not people were able to people with jobs, are they saving more, were they paying down more debt than usual . He saw a substantial chunk of americans in the pulsing they were doing the pole saying they were doing those things. Away,g one away money paying down debt, may have more money for Home Improvements. Thenow that home depot and like, business has been good. More lets go to one before we end this segment. This is something that really surprised me. When people were asked, if their employers are currently taking certain steps to avoid spreading the coronavirus we see from this chart that people think their employers are screening people and customers for symptoms. That number went up from april. But we see the number went down when you start asking about enforcing the six foot distance between employees and customers. And the number went down, again, when they were asked about adopting new or more frequent workplace cleaning. This number went up and we started talking about ppe, but those two numbers, enforcing six foot distance and adopting more frequent cleaning its shocking to me that businesses are doing less in any shape, form, or fashion. Guest i think they may have instituted some practices, so they may not say they are doing more of it. You are right to point to those two figures. I think the social distancing poses real challenges, as we have all heard on news stories. Businesses and others trying to get people to wear masks in your store. Again, it has been a real challenge for many people. Im sure businesses are having more trouble in that area in particular. Again, the start was rocky in march and april, trying to get these new systems working. I think those numbers are still very high overall, in terms of work places. That is the big category we looked at. Always doing this. A lot of them are doing it somewhat, but not always in the way they did initially. They are just learning the ropes in this very new environment. Host lets see if we can squeeze one more collar and. That is going to be kurt. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would like to say that, when we shut the economy down we knew little about the virus. At this point we know it affects all people and people with underlying conditions. I have suggested to my senator here that we open the economy focus on taking care of the people who are most at risk. Or i work, because i am at high risk, i am in my 60s, i am allowed to work from home. In my office all of the young people who are healthy are working. We are an essential group, mechanical contractors who repair hvac systems, which is something everyone has been trying to do to get back to a healthy environment at the workplace. Office, no to the social distancing, wearing a mask, or any of that is taking place. They have taken me, i am a very responsible person and look out for myself, field and stick my head into air Conditioning Systems to do surveys, but i am allowed to work from home and it is because i am blessed with a great employer to allow me to do that here in florida. My suggestion to mr. Yoho was get the economy back and going, get that young people back to work go are not going to die from the virus, take the people who are sick and who are old and a Social Security disability until the virus or vaccine, or we have come to conclusions about how we can deal with this and get the economy back open. Host go ahead and respond to him. Concernedricans are about getting the economy functioning again. We see that in survey after survey. As they are also concerned about the health aspect. I think the caller is correct. I am in the Senior Citizen category and my employer allowed me to work remotely. Many people at the American EnterpriseInstitute Want to get back to work. Those with underlying conditions, for them being able to work from home is an extraordinary blessing. Americans are concerned about the Health Aspects and to the economic aspects because they want to get the economy moving back as the jobs reports adjusted yesterday. A long way to go but i am glad we have been able to document through Public Opinion polls how americans feel about what is going on today. Carline,want to thank senior fellow at the American Enterprise institute for talking us through the numbers about the covid pandemic. Thank you what black and White America must do now. Watch cspans washington journal live at 7 00 eastern this morning. Join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, Text Messages and tweet. A senate panel hears about Remote Working during the coronavirus. Owivate businesses say