Millions of American workers are suffering from economic whiplash, thinking they were finally returning to work only to be sent home again because of the coronavirus’s latest surge. Stores, restaurants, gyms and other businesses that reopened weeks ago are shuttering again, and this time Congress appears less inclined to provide additional aid. Other businesses that had banked on customers returning and restrictions lifting – such as hotel chains, construction firms and movie theaters – are seeing hours cut and reopening dates pushed back indefinitely as consumer demand stalls. And many governors, including some who had drawn scrutiny for initially playing down the virus’s risks, are issuing new safety restrictions, in some cases just weeks after the first round of guidelines had begun to lift. In recent weeks, three states – California, Florida and Texas – have implemented policies that partly restrict restaurant or bar service. Nine others – Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico and North Carolina – have postponed or slowed reopening plans. Thousands of workers are caught in these rapidly shifting seas, many of them hourly and low-wage service employees, and are now facing unemployment for a second time. They say the past few months have been jarring: navigating unemployment in March, preparing to go back to work in April or May, and now confronting the prospect of what could be another long stretch without a paycheck. This time, many say they’re on even shakier financial ground as they topple into yet another period without a job. They face what experts have begun calling a “fiscal cliff”: the July end date for the $600 in weekly supplemental aid that has helped keep so many families afloat. For many restaurant and bar owners and workers, the past few weeks have brought an onslaught of bad news. Some said they watched wearily as infections began to tick up, just as they were starting to reopen after months of being closed. Then came all the new cases. In Phoenix, more than a dozen restaurants closed in early June after customers or employees were found to have been infected with the virus. In Jacksonville, Fla., restaurants began closing after cases rose there – in one outbreak, 16 friends tested positive for the coronavirus after dining at an Irish pub, where seven employees later tested positive. In Houston, restaurant owners are warning that they may not survive the new round of closures. In California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered bars closed in seven counties, including Los Angeles. The food-service and bar industry – which employed more than 8 million people, or about 5% of the workforce before the pandemic – has been devastated by the virus, losing more than 6 million jobs in March and April. But a strong rebound of 1.4 million jobs in May had helped drive down the country’s unemployment rate, sending hopes soaring that an economic recovery was underway. This new round of closures points to the significant challenges that will exist until a treatment or vaccine is developed. The fresh round of closures is raising fears that the already challenged recovery could stall. The country has been processing about 1.5 million new unemployment insurance applications a week for most of June – an alarmingly high rate that remains well-above pre-pandemic records – although it has come down from a peak of more than 6 million in March. According to a preliminary study by two Harvard University researchers, limitations at restaurants, bars and nonessential businesses amounted for 4.4% to 8.5% of the significant increase in unemployment in mid-March. Public health experts said the threat of a new wave of closures is why stringent public health measures have been needed to prevent the virus’s spread. “It’s an impossible choice,” said Emily Timm, an executive director at the Texas-based Worker’s Defense Project, a nonprofit organization that helps immigrant and undocumented workers. “People don’t want to risk their family’s health. But it’s not a choice if you don’t have access to the safety net or you were living paycheck to paycheck before the coronavirus hit.” There are some indications that factors beyond the shutdowns weigh more heavily on the economy. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis issued a recent report show that businesses said declining demand from consumers was the top constraint on their recovery, ahead of social distancing requirements and concerns about their workers’ health. “The pace of business reopening has to be completely in sync with the amount that demand is going up,” one of the authors, Charles Gascon, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis, said in an interview. “It’s not like there’s an on or off switch in the economy that you flip and things go back to normal. Things have to get back up to whatever the new normal is.” Nick Note:  Tomorrow we get the pie in the sky heavily doctored unemployment report. I have started laughing already……