Updated Mar 09, 2021 The Workers Hit Hardest By The Pandemic Are In For The Longest Recovery "The first fired and the last hired": Black and Latino workers are likely to suffer the longest from the COVID-19 recession. AP Photo/Steven Senne This Target store in Westwood, Massachusetts, was apparently hiring on Sept. 30, 2020, but the prospects weren't great at many other businesses. After she was laid off as a housekeeper at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in March 2020, Nely Reinante struggled with her state’s overburdened unemployment system for weeks. It was a stressful, terrifying experience that drove her to volunteer as a translator for other out-of-work people still mired in the system.