Chicago

Solar Eclipse Will Cost Almost $700M in Productivity: Researchers

"There's very few people who are not going to walk outside when there's a celestial wonder happening above their heads to go out and view it"

American workers ducking out to view Monday's total solar eclipse will cost employers at least $694 million, according to one estimate.

Reuters reported that a outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found workers will head out of the office for roughly 20 minutes a piece, though that may be a conservative estimate, according to a vice president at the Chicago-based firm.

"There's very few people who are not going to walk outside when there's a celestial wonder happening above their heads to go out and view it," Andy Challenger said.

But those hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity pale in comparison to the amount lost to other events, like March Madness and Cyber Monday.

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