Layoffs Start Turning From Temporary to Permanent Across America (1)

With a history going back to 1881, the Michigan Maple Block Co. has long been a reliable fixture in the small northern town of Petoskey.

On its website, the family-owned company boasts of having invented the laminated butcher block and that its products grace the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. And yet by early July it will be shutting its Petoskey factory and cutting loose all 56 workers at one of the few year-round businesses in the Lake Michigan tourist town.

The economic carnage caused by the coronavirus outbreak has torn through Michigan ...