GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Industries and workers across Michigan are anxious to get back to work. But how can the economy be kick started without making more people sick?
Associate Dean at Seidman College of Business and economics professor at Grand Valley State University Paul Isely says the economy will reopen slowly. He says to open for business industries have to show that social distancing measures are in place.
"We expect it to be a phased in component and we expect to see certain types of industries start up first as we start to hit May, if the data continues to show what its showing now," Isely says. "Industries are going to want to walk into it slowly. So not have all of those industries restart at one time because they want to be able to see how the virus affects and how the virus changes as people go back to work."
Outside construction jobs, lawn care services and some assembly line jobs are likely to go back to work first. The trick is that the state can't afford to have a lot of people get sick all of a sudden, because the healthcare system, can't handle that. By opening the economy in stages, we'll make sure that we don't end up with another public health emergency, because we don't want to start over again.
"We need the economy to start moving again pretty soon because we need that money to be able to fight the virus, to be able to rely on unemployment benefits to be able to support people," Isely says.
This week, seven Midwest governors announced a partnership to reopen state economies.
"This is about coordinating so that one state doesn't get too far ahead of the others. On top of that this entire group of states are very involved in automobile manufacturing," says Isely.
In her briefing today, Governor Whitmer said, "our economies are reliant on one another and we must work together to safely reopen them so that hard working people can get back to work and business can get back on their feet."
Professor Isely says to keep an eye on May for the economy and jobs to start up again because money from the CARES ACT is set to kick in for businesses and individuals. But ultimately he says, the virus will determine when the economy will come back.
"It's going to be like trying to restart the engine and they're going to be dumping in some starter fluid to try and get it started it May. If the virus hangs on, it'll be a problem. Because if the engine is not ready to restart when you dump in the lighter fluid, then you don't restart."
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