Recent layoffs and buyouts have forced blood banks in the United States to scramble more in order to meet their projected requirements. Recession has resulted in fewer corporate blood donors and small scale blood drives. Based on the blood bank data, large corporations such as Franklin Templeton, Coca Cola and JPMorgan Chase have witnessed significant decrease in blood donation camps. Michigan, Florida and Southern California are some of the hard hit states in the US where the number of donors in corporate drives have reduced considerably.The overall supply of blood in the United States seems to be sufficient in case any shortage at local level needs to be covered. In some areas corporate blood donations camps were the largest supplier of blood but after the global economic downturn, thousands of employees have been laid off and the ones who are left don’t seem to be interested in making such contributions. Michigan has the highest rate of unemployment in the US. Several large factories and companies that are shutting down in this state used to contribute the highest share in mobile blood donation drives. Florida with the unemployment rate of 11.3% also witnessed shortage of blood during the month of August. Thousands of blood units were imported in order to cover the shortage.
Approximately 33 corporate drives in Wisconsin were cancelled during June and august this year. Due to the cancellation, 1650 fewer units of blood could be collected. Blood banks are expecting the situation to improve once the economy revives.
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