Federal News Network:
By Wray Varley, VP of Federal Sales
Who would have thought a virus, an invisible germ, would infect our modern, globalized economy? The current battle plan for the majority of businesses is one of survival – tread water and keep afloat until calm and normalcy return. We’ve survived crises before and we’ll get through this one.
The Congressional Budget Office projected the U.S. GDP will drop 7% and unemployment will triple to 10% in the second quarter. The Economic Policy Institute estimated that the outbreak could permanently eliminate three million jobs by summer. In fact, a number of enterprises–large and small–have already shed workers through layoffs and unpaid furloughs and many in hard-hit industries such as retail have closed their doors. Layoffs, as we know, can be counterproductive once demand rebounds – and it will – when companies find themselves short of key talent. Other companies will seek savings by sidelining important digital transformation projects that were until recently seen as strategic and imperative to future survival.