US state and local governments brace for layoffs and cuts due to pandemic

Millions of jobs and drastic cuts to already struggling services on the line as health and economic crisis worsens

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to sweep across the country state and local governments across the US are bracing for severe economic impacts in 2021 that could force layoffs of government employees and swingeing cuts to services.

The last few months have offered a more detailed picture of what the pandemic's economic recession will look like for state and local governments. While some have been spared the doomsday scenarios predicted at the outset of the pandemic, others have been savaged". On the line are millions of jobs and drastic cuts to already struggling services in the midst of a national health and economic crisis that is only getting worse.

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The cutback at the state and local government level really delayed the recovery from the Great Recession