Corona Epidemic: Poor jobs go away, rich people raise money

Posted on 2nd Jul 2020 by rohit kumar

If you are working from home during the corona epidemic, then there is a high probability that you are saving the expenses of going to the office and eating out.

 

But on the other hand, the lockdown imposed to prevent the spread of this epidemic has cost the jobs of thousands of poor laborers and the sources of income have completely disappeared.

 

Economists say that due to this epidemic, such a strange situation has arisen which did not occur during any epidemic before today.

 

Neil Shearing, head economist at Capital Economics, says the epidemic "has strangely changed the income of families."

 

He says, "On the one hand, thousands of people have lost their source of income or are living life in fear that their jobs may go away at any time and on the other hand some people's income has increased involuntarily, Their expenses have come down and savings have increased. "

 

Savings are suddenly increasing

 

Rebecca O'Connor is the founder of the website Good with Money and works as a personal finance special in Royal London.

 

He told the BBC that "at the economic level the situation of the people has now changed. It has become difficult for some people to deposit even small amounts".

 

However, like Rebecca, the expenses of many professionals have decreased drastically in the current era.

 

For them, not saving petrol for children leaving school and not traveling for two hours in public transport for office saves $ 450 every month. Along with this, they get $ 100 more by not buying coffee on the way, not having drinks and lunch with their office friends.

 

Also, because of not bringing the goods from the supermarket, the expenses on it are being saved.

 

Different truths of lockdown for different people

 

Rebecca is not the only one who has saved money during the lockdown. Many other people save money due to lockdown in Britain, who now say that they want to fulfill their dreams of moving abroad and having a fabulous wedding.

 

In an analysis of the issue in the UK, the Resolution Foundation found that one in every three high-income families reported an increase in their monthly income, while one in five reported a decrease.

 

Families that can do work from home in the current era are also able to save more money. While 20 percent of low to middle-income families say that their borrowing has increased during the epidemic, they are either using credit cards more or are shopping on credit.

 

But Rebecca says that having more money on hand does not necessarily mean that consumers are now spending more because the global economy is at risk.

 

She says, "The best thing you can do with the saved money is to keep it somewhere where you can take it out and use it when needed."

 

Corona crisis impact

Steven Capasso, researcher at the International Labor Organization, says, "The current crisis is very different from the earlier economic crisis because the epidemic has directly attacked the labor market."

 

While work has stopped completely in many sectors due to the economy, it did not happen in some sectors. According to the organization, retail, construction work, production, hospitality, and food market are severely affected by the restrictions imposed during the lockdown.

 

"The work that the workers were doing before the restrictions was suddenly stopped," says Capasso.

 

According to the organization, the hours of work wasted during this period were equivalent to 30 crore full-time jobs. In the US and Central Asia, the working hours decreased by almost 13 percent, while the low and middle-income countries also recorded a huge decrease in working hours.

 

But among the worst affected by this epidemic are 1.6 billion workers who were working in informal sectors.

 

35-year-old Lucimara Rodrigue is one of them. Originally, Lucimara from Brazil came to America sixteen years ago. She now works in cleaning houses in Boston.

 

Lucimara told the BBC that she used to work in some wealthy families and could earn $ 3500 to 4000 a month, but her work stopped due to the lockdown.

 

She says, "It was a surprise for people like me. Never before have I had to stay in my house for two months without work."

 

Lucimara's husband is a construction worker and his work is also closed due to the lockdown. They both have two children.

 

She says that some of her bosses have continued to pay them while showing their best, but despite this, they now have to save every penny.

 

'Trying to find your way'

 

Haeyung Yoon, who works as a senior policy director at the National Domestic Works Alliance, says that most of the people working at home in America are either Latin expatriates or black people. They say that due to the lockdown, these people "now have their faith."

 

This organization has given financial assistance of four hundred dollars to ten thousand families affected by the lockdown.

 

Those working at home do not even have paid leave, sick leave, or health insurance, which they can use when needed.

 

In a recent survey, it was revealed that about 70 percent of the black people working in the houses said that due to the lockdown, either their jobs have been lost or their salaries have been reduced.

Despite this, they did not get any benefit from President Donald Trump's two trillion dollar relief package. The reason for this is that this package did not include any facilities for migrant laborers and unregistered workers.

 

Hyung Yoon says "the virus does not discriminate people but policymakers of this country do it"

Pandemic increases inequality

According to an assessment by the World Bank, the risk of the poor becoming very poor due to the corona epidemic has increased to about 10 crore people around the world.

The International Monetary Fund has appealed that special attention should be paid to eliminate inequality in the policies that are made to overcome the epidemic.

Governments around the world have spent millions of dollars to recover their economies from the corona epidemic. However, the International Monetary Fund says that special steps need to be taken for the protection of the poor and there is a need for governments to make provisions for food security and to put money in the hands of the people.

Lucimara says that the difficulties did not increase for her at the moment because the money she had left for the treatment of her mother is using them during the epidemic.

However, they say that these savings are going to end soon and they do not know what they will do to run the family.

She says, "I have many friends who also have some savings, but their savings are also ending now. You just tell me when the epidemic will end. I don't know when it will end."