DCS survey shows grave impact lockdowns had on employment

11 February 2022 12:00 am Views - 312

• Survey finds at least 7% of workers either lost or had to quit their employment
• 14% non-agricultural self-employed persons had stopped their economic activities
• This works out to a total of 1.8mn people of SL’s labour force of 8.5mn people 
• The survey was conducted using 6,440 housing units representing the whole country

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The lockdowns and the subsequent restrictions on economic activities had an enormous impact on the employed population in all sectors with at least 7 percent of the paid workers having either lost or quit their employment during the first cycle of lockdowns alone, a survey showed. 
In a survey carried out to asses the impact on the country’s employment from the first round of lockdowns in 2020, the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) showed that, “among the total paid employees, 7 percent completely lost/quit their jobs” and “14 percent non-agricultural self-employed persons had closed their economic activities”.
This couldn’t have been any more lethal as 21 percent of a total labour force of 8.5 million works out to a massive 1.8 million people in total who had either lost their jobs or livelihoods due to the lockdowns. 
When the virus first struck Sri Lanka, the government under the instructions of health sector experts shut down the economy for nearly two months from March 20, 2020 to May 30, 2020 with only essential activities allowed to remain in operation. 
 The survey, which was conducted using 6,440 housing units representing the whole country during a three-month period from August through October, also revealed that 7.4 percent households had missed at least one meal due to lack of money or other resources during the lockdowns period. 
The economic tremors of the lockdowns are still being felt across the world with consequences transcending from loss of employment to disrupted supply chains, record high inflation and loss of income and economic opportunities to scores of people. 
“The adverse impact of Covid-19 pandemic will affect employment and also the Sri Lankan economy for many years to come,” said DCS Director General P.M.P Anura Kumara.
“Sri Lanka must take necessary steps now to mitigate this adverse impact on employment from becoming an economic and social crisis,”he added in the survey report. 

Economic analysts say with two years into the pandemic and all the destruction it caused, it’s high time for the world to retire the term ‘lockdown,’ and treat the virus as a part of life. 
“The cure cannot be worse than the disease,” said one economic analyst who maintained that the lockdowns shouldn’t have been imposed as part of virus response as that is what brought all the imbalances in the global economy, which has inflicted pain on billions of people.  It was only last week the Harvard Medical School Professor Dr. Stefanos Kales said the pandemic protocols that ignore the economy are a, “big mistake”.