SAN ANTONIO – Since the coronavirus pandemic swept across the nation, the U.S. Labor Department estimates approximately 41 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits.
In Sunday’s Leading S.A., San Antonio City Manager Erik Walsh addressed how the Alamo City is feeling the economic impact.
“We’ve had probably over 100,000 San Antonio residents who claimed unemployment and our unemployment rate locally is about 12.5%. So it’s been devastating. A number of our specific sectors have been really severely impacted, such as retail trade, restaurants, a lot of the downtown hotels,” Walsh said.
The city manager also discussed how the local leaders are working with state and federal officials to lead us out of this period of uncertainty.
“The San Antonio Fire Department has completed testing every nursing home, resident and employee over the last two weeks, which was really important for us to do locally. That was under a governor’s order. I think we were one of the first big cities to accomplish that,” Walsh said.
With restrictions loosening seemingly by the week, that cooperation between the San Antonio government and the governor is key.
“Every time the governor issues an emergency order, the mayor and the judge have adjusted our local orders so that it’s a kind of a hand in glove and a very consistent approach for everyone. So it’s been helpful,” Walsh said.