Louisville City Wire

James Hamblin, a furloughed Louisville operations manager for a national parking and driving company, is like many of the millions of U.S. workers suddenly unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic: discouraged.

"I was laid off due to coronavirus epidemic," Premier Parking operations manager told Louisville City Wire. "I am currently unable to make any money, and have not landed a single job interview in the time since have been laid off, which was almost three weeks ago."

Hamblin also is "having issues" landing unemployment compensation. "I feel like the system is a joke," he said.

Louisville residents are staying home, taking business away from the parking and driving industry. | louisvilleky.gov

Hamblin is one of hundreds of Premier Parking employees furloughed nationwide and among the millions of newly unemployed for whom the future is uncertain.

Premier Parking's future also is uncertain as the company sustained a staggering economic blow over the past few weeks. Last month Premier Parking COO William Clay called for more government assistance for the parking and driving industry.

The phase III stimulus package, which included extended unemployment benefits, passed by the U.S. House and Senate last month, likely will help most of Premier Parking's furloughed employees but the company also is struggling, Clay told Tennessee Business Daily.

"We are asking that the parking industry [NAICS 812930] be recognized as an industry in need of assistance, and we are asking for business interruption insurance to be granted to our company [and others like us] in this time of great need," Clay said.

Premier Parking employs more than 2,000 associates in more than 600 locations in more than 40 cities across the nation, providing services at concerts, sports and other events.

Those events are postponed or canceled, drying up Premier Parking's business as the company's potential customers are largely stuck at home waiting out the crisis. That has led to the furlough of hundreds of Premier Parking's employees.

"[The coronavirus] has caused devastation to our company and to our family of employees as we've been forced to lay off hundreds of employees over the past two weeks," Clay said in the earlier Tennessee Business Daily story. "This has been the most difficult two weeks of my professional life. Revenues are down 90-plus percent across the board as most CBDs are shelter-in-place and employees are working from home."

The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was starkly illustrated last week when the U.S. Labor Department reported that a record-breaking 6.6 million workers signed up for unemployment benefits.

The majority of Premier Parking's workforce are in field operations and include valet drivers at hotels, also shut down by the crisis, and shuttle bus drivers for hotel employees who also have been largely furloughed.

"Through no fault of their own, their lives have been turned upside down, Clay said. "They lost a steady job with a reliable paycheck and are facing repercussions that may seem insurmountable for many."

Hamblin said his layoff came in the middle of plans to transfer from Premier Parking's Louisville office back to Nashville, plans that were about three months in the making.  

"The plan was for me to move back in late March to begin the new position in Nashville," Hamblin recalled. "The week I was laid off, I was training my replacement for the Louisville position."

He also was looking for a new home to share with his girlfriend, a teacher who also has been furloughed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Both are currently without a steady income and Louisville, like the rest of Kentucky, is under Gov. Andy Beshear March 25 "healthy at home" order. On March 30, Beshear signed another executive order restricting Kentuckians from traveling outside the state, with few exception, none of which include Hamblin and his girlfriend.

"I do not know how I will make ends meet for long," he said.