Unemployment surges as small businesses struggle

Unemployment is surging across the United States as small businesses struggle amid the coronavirus shutdown.

More than 4.4 million Americans filed unemployment claims last week, the US Department of Labor reported Thursday.

California led the nation with 533,568 claims.

Over the past five weeks, 26 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits because of stay-at-home orders in response to COVID-19.

"The numbers are certainly deeply alarming. To get to 26 million jobless in just a month is terrifying," said Sharky Laguana, president of the San Francisco Small Business Commission.

"Small business is the most deeply impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. So it shouldn't surprise us that there's a lot of job losses because that's where all the jobs are."

Laguana's own van rental business, Bandago, has been devastated by the shutdown.

The firm, which he founded in 2003, has a fleet of about 600 vans in 15 cities and employed 80 workers earlier this year.

It mostly caters to the live music industry, though he rents out some vans as recreational campers.

Laguana, who played in the indie rock band Creeper Lagoon, said 99 percent of his business disappeared when the coronavirus outbreak spread in March, prompting stay-at-home orders across the country.

The Bandago founder laid off most of his employees earlier this month, but brought most of them back on payroll this week after securing a loan from the Paycheck Protection Program, part of the federal coronavirus relief package that provides forgivable loans that don't have to be paid back if employees are kept on the payroll.

He said the money will last about two months.

"It's upsetting and shocking to go from having a profitable business that's been in business for over a decade to having an extremely unprofitable business that cannot exist without aid from the government," Laguana said.

Another relief package passed in the US House of Representatives on Thursday and will provide more funding for small businesses that have been particularly hard-hit by the economic pause.

The legislation has already been passed by the US Senate and is expected to quickly be signed into law by President Donald Trump.

Laguana said the jobless claims don't capture the extent of the economic pain because small business owners like himself aren't counted. Keeping his business open is just pushing him further into debt.

"There's going to be a lot of businesses where the business may not survive and my company may be in that category," Laguana said.