“…about 70 percent of college students were working before the pandemic, and an even substantial — even more substantial were involved in the labor force in some way because they were looking for a job, but they could not find one. Now you have all of these people who have been told, we either can’t go to work or my job closed. A lot of people in college work at restaurants, for example, and we have been see what’s happening there. So to be told you still have to pay your rent, and you don’t have money coming in, it really does create a significant crisis…” (Goldrick-Rab)
While listening to and reading How is the pandemic impacting college students I realized just how much this pandemic has also affected me personally and my peers. The quote above relates to a huge problem that I have experienced. Before coming to college I worked at a lumber yard and once the pandemic hit there was such a lull in the business that I had to be let off. This affected my ability to make as much money as possible before going off to school. Well, I thought that I could maybe get a job here in oxford but with an even stricter covid restriction here than back home in Florida, I found it impossible. In addition to me personally being affected many businesses in a small town like this are being affected too. Bars that employ a very large percentage of college students have certainly been impacted. I know a couple of bartenders and they have not gotten a fraction of the income due to bar hours being shortened and a much smaller capacity, bartenders do not get the income in tips they rely on.