Day laborers in Los Angeles County are struggling to find work because of the recent rains and the coronavirus pandemic.
Gabriel Reyes was $600 short of his $1,800 monthly rent and April was around the corner. The day laborer was so desperate for a job he created a cardboard sign that listed his welding skills and cellphone number.For a month, the husband and father of three had been soliciting work in the parking lot of a Home Depot in Paramount. In his pockets, he carried little pieces of paper with his name and number to give to potential employers. He couldn’t even calculate how many he had passed out.
The pandemic has presented an unusual challenge for the nonprofit organization, which spent the last few weeks trying to figure out whether to keep some of its centers open. But with so few jobs and because some of the workers were within the high-risk age group, some of the centers closed. Since 2011, Hernandez has been contracted by the city to manage the day labor job center located near a Home Depot. But his time at the center dates to 2007, when he began volunteering with a nonprofit organization that ran it. Not long afterward, the U.S. was hit by the Great Recession. People lost their livelihoods and jobs dried up for day laborers.Competition for jobs was so fierce that laborers would make mad dashes toward potential employers and sometimes got into fistfights.
Alvarado said that even during the recession, there were some jobs. But the coronavirus has created a crisis of maximum abruptness — like hitting a wall. People are now contending not only with an economic downturn, but with a pandemic that could make them or their loved ones seriously ill — or kill them. Alvarado said all this makes the day laborer’s future more uncertain than ever.
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