?I can?t get a single present?: millions in US barely scraping by amid holidays

For millions of Americans, the Covid-19 pandemic has left them and their families with little money or cause for celebrating the holidays this year.

"My youngest turns six on Christmas day and I can't even get her a single present," said Amanda Starr of Lebanon, Ohio, a single mother of three who has struggled to find work after her car was repossessed when she missed payments due to losing her retail job in the beginning of the pandemic.

Starr was one of millions of workers out of work who lost unemployment benefits when federal extended and pandemic unemployment benefits ended in September. She is spending the holidays currently worrying about her family facing eviction soon and has experienced issues in receiving federal childcare tax credit payments.

As of November, 15.6 million workers in the US are still being affected by the pandemic's economic downturn; 3.9 million US workers are out of the labor force due to Covid-19, 6.9 million workers are still unemployed, 2 million workers are still experiencing cuts to pays or work schedules due to Covid-19, and another 3 million workers are misclassified as employed or out of the labor force, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Several industries are still reeling from job shortfalls compared to prior to the pandemic, such as a deficit of 1.3m jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector and 951,000 jobs in state and local governments.

Laura Nash, 38, of Bellingham, Washington, lost her engineering job on 19 October and has been waiting for over seven weeks for unemployment benefits while searching for a new job.

"Times are definitely tough and I don't have any money for the holidays," said Nash. "I'm lucky to be able to tag along with my parents for the holidays, but no gifts."