Nevada's Work Force Still Heavily Impacted By COVID-19

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SIMON: Some casinos have reopened with limited capacity, but Main Street Station is still closed. It's not clear when it may reopen. Jose Lopez continues to wait. He's gotten some help from the Culinary Union, which has provided some meals. Nearly half of their workers, who are mostly Latino and immigrants, are in a similar situation - without work, anxious and hurting. Jose Lopez has been looking for another bartending job, but he's 59. He wouldn't have seniority at a new place.

LOPEZ: It will take me years to come back and have the quality of shift that I had before. I mean, I don't know anybody who will just jump out and go start anyplace else. I feel like I haven't done anything to - anything wrong to lose my job. It was a pandemic who come in. And I'm going to go now and leave my job there for somebody else? When you go to someplace else, it's so hard to start. They put you on the bottom of the list. And it takes you 10, 15, 30 years to become - get a good spot in bar.

SIMON: Nevada's workforce has lost more income than any other state. Unemployment rates there have been some of the highest in the country. One piece of legislation gives Nevada workers some hope. It's called the Right to Return bill and would require employers to offer laid-off workers their same jobs or a position similar to what they were doing before the pandemic struck. But that bill hasn't been scheduled for a vote. Meanwhile, Jose Lopez says he's ready to get behind the bar again as soon as possible and see his customers.

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