While some college students use the money they make to fund their weekend trips to Northgate, for other students, the ability to pay bills and buy essentials is reliant on their ability to work and make money.
The Washington Post reports that a record 6.65 million Americans filed a new jobless claim in the week that ended March 28. These numbers come after shelter-in-place orders around the country have shut down non-essential businesses like restaurants, gyms and some retail shops.
General studies freshman Dalton Wages was an employee at a Whataburger in College Station before the coronavirus pandemic brought him back to his hometown.
“After classes were canceled and things got more serious, my hometown grocery store contacted me because they were in need of more overnight stockers,” Wages said. “My job definitely got more strenuous because my typical work schedule now is 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. stocking the shelves on every aisle of the store.”
Rather than just an increase in workload, biomedical sciences senior and H-E-B bakery employee Allison Scott saw her job change completely.
“They shut down the bakery for the time being so the bakery employees are kind of like a sanitation task force,” Scott said. “My job is completely different because now I just sanitize carts all day, every day.”
While Scott said customers were resistant at first, she thinks they now understand the precautions being taken. Although H-E-B employees like Scott haven’t experienced much change to their income during the pandemic, that is not the case for many student workers.
“Financially speaking, without this job everything would have gone down the drain,” Scott said. “For college students I know a lot of people rely on their parents to help financially, but not every college student can do that.”
While most Rec employees aren’t receiving their usual pay due to the closing on March 20, intramural referee and communication sophomore Briana Cepeda said the Rec has offered its employees other opportunities to make money.
“Some Rec employees are still getting pay by helping out with the FIFA tournaments and other online things, but even with that you’re only getting like an hour and a half worth of pay,” Cepeda said.
Because of the decrease in income and the uncertainty of whether or not she would be able to provide for herself, Cepeda made the difficult decision to leave Aggieland for the semester and return to her hometown.
“After losing my job in College Station, I wasn’t able to afford my weekly essentials because my income completely stopped,” Cepeda said. “This has really hurt me financially to where I am having to live back home in Dallas.”
Cepeda said her financial strain has caused strain within her family as well, but she remains confident in their ability to rebound from the circumstances.
“My parents really relied on me being financially independent in College Station so me coming home has caused a difficult transition,” Cepeda said. “But we’re going to make it through this.”