COVID-19 Forced Almost 40K People Out of Jobs!
Wendy Benavides
During today’s press briefing the Statistical Institute also shared findings from the Labour Force Survey of September 2020. We’ll tell you a bit more about those findings later in the newscast, but we take a look firstly at the impact of COVID-19 on the labour force. The S.I.B. says that between March and August 2020, almost forty-thousand persons lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic. Wendy Benavides of the S.I.B. has the details.
Wendy Benavides, Statistician II, SIB
“I will start with persons not working who lost their jobs due to COVID-19 which was estimated at thirty-eight thousand nine hundred and nine jobs; thirty-three percent of these persons previously worked in the tourism industry; followed by fifteen percent in wholesale and retail trade and repairs and twelve percent in community and social and personal services. About seventy-seven percent were sustained by a family member or depended on their own savings. Fifty-seven point six percent who lost their job due to COVID were females. Overall, twenty-eight point two percent were persons twenty-five to thirty-four years. It is important to note that not all persons who lost their jobs due to COVID were classified as unemployed because two-thirds lacked the criteria of looking for work. These persons were then instead captured as out of the labour force. Moving on to unemployed persons who lost their previous job due to COVID-19,one out of three jobs were lost in the tourism industry; fifty-one point one percent of unemployed persons in Stann Creek district lost their jobs worked in the tourism industry.”
Benavides says that COVID-19 has also impacted those who remain employed. Of those with jobs, one out of every four received reduced or partial payment from employment. Also, working hours have shrunk since the onset of the pandemic. The S.I.B. reports that pre-COVID-19, persons were working forty-three point eight per week and post-COVID, that number is down to thirty-seven point one hours per week.
