NATONWIDE — Hispanic women have lost their jobs at a disproportionately higher rate than the U.S. workforce overall since the coronavirus pandemic began, according to the latest Pew Research Center study.

From February through April, the unemployment rate for Hispanic women rose from more than 5 percent to about 20 percent, and it remains at 18.7 percent, according to the US. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In Central Florida, the economic devastation has been even worse because of the concentration of service industry jobs, which are the most vulnerable in any economic downtown but especially the worst one in decades brought on by the pandemic.

More than 21 percent of Hispanic women work in service-industry jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Karla Gomez said she lost her customer service job at an Orlando Laundromat twice because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I started my customer service job there in March,” Gomez said. “Three weeks into my job, I was let go, then called back in April -— only to be laid off again a month later.”

Gomez, 44, said her husband’s paycheck and her unemployment benefits helped her family stay afloat financially.

“It’s not enough,” Gomez said. “You can’t survive on that in the U.S.”

Gomez has epilepsy, putting her at a higher risk of severe illness if she contracts coronavirus. For that reason, she said does not plan to return to work until after the pandemic ends.