PUTRAJAYA, April 9 — Nearly half or 46.6 per cent of self-employed respondents in a special survey conducted by the Statistics Department to gauge the impact of Covid-19 said they have lost their livelihood while nine out of 10 employed respondents see a reduction of their normal wage.
In a statement today, chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said 168,182 responded to the online survey (First Round) targeting those aged 15 and above, from March 23 until March 31, 2020.
He said the agricultural and services sectors recorded a higher percentage of job losses compared with other sectors due to the coronavirus pandemic, at 21.9 per cent and 15.0 per cent respectively.
“For the agricultural sector, 33.0 per cent of employees in the fisheries sub-sector and 21.1 per cent in the agriculture and plantation sub-sectors reported losing their jobs.
“For the services sector, job losses in the food and beverage service sub-sector is 35.4 per cent, followed by 18.7 per cent in the transport and storage sub-sectors,” he disclosed.
In terms of savings, the survey found that more than two-thirds or 71.4 per cent of the self-employed respondents have enough to get by for less than a month.
“Only 6.2 per cent of respondents said they were not too badly affected while 52.6 per cent expressed being financially drained,” Mohd Uzir said.
In light of the change in the working situation, 69.7 per cent of respondents employed for less than a year said their savings would sustain them for less than one month.
Of the respondents who are employed, 11.4 per cent aged between 21 and 30 years, and 11.7 per cent aged over 30 years have sufficient savings for up to four months.
A majority of the respondents except those employed by government-linked companies and multinational companies admit being unprepared to brace for an extension of the movement control order.
Hopefully, said Mohd Uzir, the result of the survey could assist the government and Malaysians in handling the impact of Covid-19 on the economy and employment.
However, he also emphasised that the department’s analysis on the special survey does not reflect the opinion of the whole population.
“It should be interpreted circumspectly as it is not official statistics,” he said.
— Bernama
