Updated 3/19/2020 2:52 p.m.

Sweeping rounds of layoffs have started to hit D.C.-area businesses in a wide range of sectors. The economic plunge has been widely felt, hitting the wedding industry, food and hospitality services, arts organizations, wellness companies, and many others.

Nationally, the Dow Jones had plummeted 13 percent as of Monday due to the global coronavirus pandemic, marking its worst fall ever (and Wall Street’s worst standing since Black Monday in 1987). In the D.C. region, mass layoffs began to pick up as restaurants, bars, and other establishments reacted to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s mandate to suspend all business to stop the virus’ spread.

[Read the latest updates about coronavirus in our region here]

The restaurant industry has been hit particularly hard in the wake of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s restrictions on restaurants and bars.

EatWell DC, the restaurant group that runs Commissary, Grillfish, the Pig, Logan Tavern, and The Charles, laid off approximately 160 employees on Sunday and Monday. “I laid myself off too,” said EatWell principal David Winer. “I don’t expect any income for the rest of the year at this point.”

Responding to a claim from a D.C. employment lawyer that the layoffs were made to avoid providing employees with paid leave, Winer called the last two days “the hardest 48 hours of my adult life” and said he fired the employees so they could start collecting unemployment benefits immediately. “Anything else is an unabashed lie,” he said. “I care deeply about my employees and break my back for them.”

At the Busboys and Poets chain of restaurants and bookstores, hundreds of waiters, event staff, management team members, and bookstore employees were laid off in the past 24 hours.

“This is dramatic. This is not a joke,” said owner Andy Shallal by phone. He said he’s talked to a half dozen other restaurant owners over the past few days, and every one of them has had to lay off most of their employees too.

Shallal has been trying to nail down government funds to help both his former employees and his remaining business. He’s been in conversation with members of the D.C. Council about unemployment benefit options for his laid off workers, and he’s reached out to the D.C. Department of Small And Local Business Development to inquire about a grant. “How’s that going to play out?” he wondered. “It’s going to break the bank, but someone needs to come through.”

In the meantime, he’s providing what little help he can: For the foreseeable future, any current or recently laid off Busboys employee can stop by one of his restaurants for a free lunch.

Hometown roaster Compass Coffee laid off 150 of its 189 employees, 80 percent of its staff, according to an email from co-founders Harrison Suarez and Michael Haft. They say they “chose the least damaging” of their bad options, opting to lay workers off so they can apply for unemployment benefits.

“As a leadership team, we’ve attempted to adjust schedules, and to find projects that would keep people productive, but unfortunately even those measures won’t be enough,” an email reads, in part, before explaining that laid-off staff will receive pay this Friday from the last pay period.

“To be clear, each person was contacted individually first,” the co-owners tell DCist. “We did this one-by-one. Each manager called their direct reports and spoke with them on the phone. Each of these conversations was extremely personal and painful. There were many tears and goodbyes … We have a small team still at Compass. We are calling ourselves Project Phoenix. Like we said on Instagram: we will emerge from the ashes of this catastrophe.”

Arts organizations are also laying off employees in the wake of cancelled performances and fundraising events.

“Today I had to lay off almost my entire staff (50 people),” wrote DC Improv Comedy Club owner Allyson Jaffe on Facebook Monday night. “Their worlds have been rocked and lives are forever changed. The DC Improv is closed for who knows how long. I have no idea if my business will be able to weather this storm and reopen.”

DC Brau has seen a significant dip in their revenue stream due to restaurant and bar closures, but co-owner Brandon Skall says they have not had to lay off any workers yet. “We’re taking this a day at a time,” he said. “Right now our focus is on producing package beer.” Future decisions about layoffs will depend on whether federal and state officials allow production facilities to remain in operation.

The health, wellness and fitness industry has also been hit. On Thursday, the D.C.-based boutique gym chain [solidcore] announced it has laid off 98% of its workforce. The company used to employ 137 full-time employees, 97 part-time employees and 397 coaches. For now, thirteen employees will remain at the Company working at “very reduced salaries,” according to founder and CEO Anne Mahlum, who has stopped taking a salary as well.

On Monday Saya Barkdoll shut the doors of Ohana, her wellness center and spa in Bethesda that’s typically open seven days a week. She’s laid off two of her five employees so far, and has ceased working with the 14 independent contractors with whom she normally does business. She’s cut the salaries of her remaining three employees but is trying to keep them on for online-based work.

ARTECHOUSE, the creative digital space near L’Enfant Plaza, put more than 90 people across all of its locations (Miami and New York included) on furlough. That accounts for about 90 percent of the entire team, according to Tati Pastukhova, the managing director.

The staff was told the night before Wednesday’s announcement. The furloughed staff will be paid for their worked time and will have extended benefits coverage through the month of April, Pastukhova writes in an email to DCist. The owners made the decision to close the organization so it can fully reopen “when the time comes,” she says. The art space, fully funded by visitors, has created a new support page.

“Just a week ago, we were focusing on getting a new show up, and as soon as it opened we had to focus on getting it closed,” Pastukhova says. “It certainly was the most difficult decision we had to make over the past five years we’ve been building ARTECHOUSE.”

Nate Reynolds, owner of two D.C. nightclubs—Harlot DC and Living Room—says he’s prepared to close both clubs as the economy tanks. He’s had to temporarily lay off his entire club staff, giving them their last checks Tuesday, and is working with lawyers to ensure his establishments won’t be evicted. While other industries can stay afloat at a time of social distancing, the hospitality industry suffers because it’s based on social interaction, he says.

“The ripple effect is crazy,” Reynolds says. “You’ve got to think, all these restaurants are closing, suppliers are out of work, and that affects the entire region—all the way to fishers on the Eastern Shore.”

That ripple effect is going to continue for the foreseeable future, even after the virus has been contained, says Jeannette Chapman, director of the Stephen S. Fuller Institute at George Mason University. Grocery stores won’t see the negative effects just yet, as consumers are frontloading (though, in six months, that spending will taper off when customers will have no need to go shopping, Chapman points out.)

However, the restaurant and events industries will see the impact immediately, and the D.C. area will essentially go without its typical spring tourism boom, she says.

“In the long term, some of the consumer pullback in spending will be lost for for the entirety of this period,” Chapman says. “Some of it’s going to get caught up because people will eventually start going back out to restaurants … but it’s looking like this is going to last for more than just a month. And it will be harder to recoup those losses—especially for restaurants and small businesses that typically have small margins to begin with. They may not be able to wait it out. What we’re going to see is an increase in the jobless claims, as you’ve seen.”

Before the virus hit, the U.S. had been in the longest period of business expansion on record, Chapman says, which was already making consumers nervous. “The key the key recession scenario would have been a broadbased pullback in consumer spending that would result in a small U.S. recession, and it looks very much like that’s how this is going to play out.”

Chapman says that some businesses will reopen after this wave of closures, while others simply won’t be able to weather the storm.

Reynolds, the club owner who also runs two software businesses, says he’s paying his salaried employees out of pocket—for now.

In response to the industry-wide layoffs, someone started a D.C. virtual tip jar for service industry workers who might need additional support. As Jessica Sidman points out on Twitter, nearly 1,000 local employees are seeking help through the document, and the list is being updated on a daily basis at noon.

This story has been updated with new information about EatWell DC, Compass Coffee, ARTECHOUSE, and [solidcore].