COVID-19 and the Economy

The same supply chain issues impacting all facets of our lives is also hitting Halloween, with some costumes and decorations harder to find at stores.

In Madison Heights, management at Noodle Topia found another way to deal with the waitstaff shortage. Two robots - Bella and Hola are now part of the work team.

"Covid had a really big impact," said Marlece White. "When we came back from being shut down. I lost half my staff.

A little less than 5% of Michigan is still unemployed, meaning the additional money that's been coming from the federal government that will end Monday could impact hundreds of thousands of residents.

Programs offering additional jobless benefits for Americans have ended at the federal level, even as the unemployment rate remains higher than it did before the pandemic. Here's what might happen next.

"Understaffed is an understatement you’ll catch me cooking, doing line-work, anything to keep doors open," said Jared Kopiczko, general manager, Red Olive in Ferndale.

The reason for the extension is the CDC has re-classified Wayne County as an area under threat of substantial community transmission of COVID-19.

"Our biggest challenge has been the government," he said. "They’re giving away the stimulus packages, they are paying people to stay home."

After the CDC issued a new federal ban on evictions, Wayne County and the city of Detroit are now included. The new ban applies to regions of the country with "substantial" or "high" transmission of COVID-19 as of August 3.

It's the latest development in a controversy over how Republicans who control government in Shiawassee County, population 68,000, handled a windfall from the federal government.

"The economy is doing very very well, so you can’t go backward for vaccinations unless there’s a new strain or something so where we are," he said. "The stock market is still within 2 percent of the all-time high and we think there’s a lot more to go."

Long-time employees are resigning at a fast clip. According to Oxford Economics, 2.5 million Americans have retired since Covid started. That’s twice as many people who retired in 2019.

The council approval came Tuesday by a 6-2 vote. The mayor has said $400 million is for restoring the city’s budget with the remaining $426 million going toward community investments. See which here.

An evaluation of Michigan's 83 counties found over the past 16 months that the state had a 38 percent increase in people experiencing food insecurity and for children that number rose 63 percent.

Expanding the program would open up free tuition at community colleges to an additional 22,000 people who worked during the pandemic in an essential role.

How that money is spent is worrying Michigan corrections officials. Some of the payouts are going to family and back taxes, but some could add to drug problems in prisons as well.