An Airline Bailout Is Taking Shape

As the coronavirus upends economic life around the world, small towns are particularly vulnerable.

For Bristol, a lakeside town of 3,300 residents in New Hampshire, the economic destruction has come quickly. By the end of March, gift shops, yoga studios and restaurants had all shut their doors. Hundreds lost jobs, contributing to a record surge in national unemployment claims.

Now one of Bristol’s biggest employers, a factory owned by the German conglomerate Freudenberg, has shut down its production of bonded piston seals and laid off 100 people, more than a quarter of its work force.

As the coronavirus upends economic life around the world, small towns like Bristol are particularly vulnerable. Freudenberg is its lone large employer. There are just a few national chains — a Dunkin’, a Rite Aid and a Dollar General. And many of the small locally owned businesses depend on seasonal residents, who flock to Newfound Lake during the summer, doubling the town’s population for a few months.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/business/stock-market-covid-coronavirus.html