The Trump National Doral resort in Miami just laid off 560 employees

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The Trump National Doral resort in Miami just laid off 560 employees
FILE PHOTO: The Trump National Doral golf resort is shown in Doral, Florida, U.S., March 18, 2019. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File Photo

Reuters

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FILE PHOTO: The Trump National Doral golf resort is shown in Doral

  • The Trump National Doral resort in Miami, Florida, has laid off 560 employees, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing filings the resort made in Florida.
  • Most of the cuts affected staffers working in food service, hotel services, and golf course operations. Forty-three housekeepers, 123 servers, and 25 cooks were placed on furlough, according to The Journal.
  • The coronavirus has decimated the US economy as businesses across the country shut down and millions of workers either lose their jobs or are forced to work from home.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Trump National Doral resort in Miami, Florida, has laid off 560 employees, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing filings the resort made in Florida.

Most of the cuts affected staffers working in food service, hotel services, and golf course operations. Forty-three housekeepers, 123 servers, and 25 cooks were placed on furlough, according to The Journal.

The Trump National Doral, one of President Donald Trump's flagship properties, was forced to shutter as federal and state officials enforce social-distancing measures and limit outside activity in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

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The coronavirus, which causes a disease known as COVID-19, has decimated the US economy as businesses close their doors and millions of workers are forced to work from home or have lost their jobs.

The service industry has been particularly hard hit, with restaurants, bars, hotels, and clubs shuttering entirely or only remaining open for takeout and delivery.

Nearly 17 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the last three weeks, overwhelming states who were already struggling to keep up with the number of claims.

The number of jobs lost in the last three weeks now exceeds the 15 million jobs lost during the Great Recession over a decade ago. Economic forecasts also predict the numbers will keep rising and the unemployment rate will top the 25% peak it hit during the Great Depression.

"In its first month alone, the coronavirus crisis is poised to exceed any comparison to the Great Recession," Glassdoor Senior Economist Daniel Zhao said in a statement to Politico. "The new normal for UI claims will be the canary in the coal mine for how long effects of the crisis will linger for the millions of newly unemployed Americans."

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"We are nowhere near the end of this," tweeted Heidi Shierholz, policy director at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. "The labor market has been upended."

Trump signed a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus package last month that significantly expanded unemployment benefits for those who have been laid off as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. But NPR reported that obtaining those benefits can be a huge challenge as state unemployment offices are overwhelmed and people are unable to get in touch with anyone to file claims.

The president, meanwhile, has dramatically shifted his message to the public over the last several months. He initially downplayed the risk of the coronavirus, called it a Democratic "hoax," and insisted it was no more dangerous than the flu and that the US was well prepared to handle it.

As the disease gained a stronger foothold in the country around mid-March, Trump acknowledged the severity of the crisis and claimed he "felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic."

He pivoted to focus on the economy near the end of last month and said the US would "be open for business" again "very soon," despite public health officials warning that preemptively lifting stay-at-home orders would exacerbate the outbreak. But Trump doubled down, saying "we cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself."

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In recent days, Trump has become even more aggressive, lashing out at reporters who question his administration's preparedness in the early days of the pandemic and falsely claiming he has "total" authority to compel governors to reopen their states' economies.

Do you have a personal experience with the coronavirus you'd like to share? Or a tip on how your town or community is handling the pandemic? Please email covidtips@businessinsider.com and tell us your story.

Get the latest coronavirus business & economic impact analysis from Business Insider Intelligence on how COVID-19 is affecting industries.

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