As more cities close down restaurants and other businesses, employees are feeling the impact. It’s leaving more people searching for what to do to get their bills paid.
It’s the exact situation Kassandra Connelly is facing now.
“It’s been hard,” Connelly said.
Instead of spending hours at work, she’s home with her pets.
“The schools went first and I was like, 'All right, that’s my main job,' and I’m no longer doing that. I was like all right, I’ll just pick up extra hours at the restaurant and then hopefully that’ll be OK and then the restaurant went next,” Connelly said.
Her three jobs totaled about 55 hours a week, but that’s now been cut down to five hours a week.
“I dropped 50 hours, which is a big change of income,” Connelly said. “I really thought that things are actually going to start looking up for us soon financially, and then now I’m not working, which really wasn’t anything we could’ve foreseen.”
Like so many Arizonans, Connelly faces tough choices.
The first step she took, was applying for unemployment in Arizona. Which is the last thing she’d thought she’d ever do.
“I really didn’t, I thought, ‘You know, I’ve got a year left in school, so I’m hoping to get into a career job soon,’ and I thought I was going to be pretty set after that,” Connelly said.
The second thing she’s done is called creditors and looked for assistance with late fees. Connelly and her fiancé are looking for other help too as bills still need to be paid.
“We’re kind of worried about what’s going to happen to our credit and, you know, us with our apartment now,” Connelly said.
While she’s home, she’s focusing on her future as she works to finish her degree with Arizona State University
“Classes started this week, so I’m kind of just focusing on those and getting ahead of in my classes before I hopefully go back to work,” Connelly said.
