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Restaurant industry estimates $25B in lost sales due to COVID-19

Yahoo Finance's Sibile Marcellus breaks down how the coronavirus is disrupting the restaurant industry with Seana Smith.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: It's no secret that the restaurant industry has been hit extremely hard by the coronavirus outbreak. Now, we just got a new nationwide survey about this sector, just in terms of the job losses that have been happening within the restaurant industry. And it found that 3 million jobs have already been lost in the industry in just the first 22 days of March.

So Sibile Marcellus is still with us here. And, Sibile, you have been tracking this story for us. And when you start digging into the numbers, they're very sobering.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: Yes, absolutely, very sobering, and financially devastating. So New York State has been hit very hard by the restaurant closures that only allowed them to do takeout and delivery. So so far this month, they've collectively lost $1.9 billion. And more than 250,000 jobs were lost.

Nationwide, it's even bigger than that. It's an estimated $25 billion in sales and more than 3 million jobs lost in the first 22 days of March. Now, compared to the same period last month, just to kind of compare here, what you're seeing is that there was a 47% decline in sales nationwide, 58% decline in New York.

And when it comes to employment, so tons of restaurants had to lay people off. And the numbers are huge. Nationwide, it was 70% of workers were laid off in the restaurant industry.

And here's the thing. About half of restaurants expect even more cuts over the next 30 days. So you can expect unemployment claims to continue to rise.

In New York, it's been 78% of workers that have been laid off. And 52% of restaurants expect even more cuts over the rest of the next couple of weeks and the next month. Now, among the restaurants that couldn't keep up, they couldn't stay open even if they were allowed to do delivery and takeout, you're talking about 44% nationwide, and 48% of restaurants in New York. And here's the biggest fear for restaurants in New York is that even when the US economy is reopened, they're in such a deep financial hole right now that they will have to keep their doors closed forever.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, that's what we've been hearing when we've been talking to some of the small restaurant owners and the small businesses here over the past couple of weeks. Sibile, thanks so much.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: Thanks, Seana.

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