Tayla Andre, a realtor in Boston and a mom of three, is still feeling the effects of losing work due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Everything stopped. No one wanted people in their house...Real estate came to a screeching halt,” Andre said. “It meant food stamps, food pantry, trying to make ends meet and they’re ends. They don’t meet.”
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Andre's story has been all too common, according to Sean Tole, a financial advisor with Davis Wealth Management out of Concord, New Hampshire. Tole says the pandemic has been devastating for many families.
“Women make up about 39 percent of the workforce in this country and during this pandemic they unfortunately lost about 54 percent of the jobs so very disproportionately affected,” he said.
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Tole says this will have a trickle down effect. If the income isn’t coming in, it’s very difficult to save.
If you are out of work, or making less money, first identify what’s necessary, create a budget, and stick with it, Tole advises. If possible, he says, save all you can, so it doesn’t impact you years later.
“To the extent you can find that money and put it aside and put it into savings for retirement the better off you’re going to be,” Tole said.
Beth Humberd is a Professor of Management at Umass Lowell’s Manning School of Business and an expert on women in the workforce. She says we may see women decide they're going to stay home the next few years.
“Even a mom pulled out of the workforce for 6-8 months to make this work, you don’t know what level she’s going back into," Humberd said. "“I also think we’re going to see a cohort of women that may never thought they would be stay-at-home parents deciding now for the next couple of years they’re going to stay home."
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For Andre there was no savings for a year, but she has steady work again.
“Now it’s uphill and we’re chugging along trying to get to the pinnacle,” she said.
Tole says there is some good news, though -- there’s plenty of hiring right now.
