13pc persons lost jobs because of Covid-19 pandemic: BIDS survey
About 13 percent people have grown to be unemployed in the united states because of Covid-19 pandemic, according to a survey of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).
The survey titled "Dealing with COVID -19 and Individual Responses: Findings from a big Online Survey" was conducted on 30,000 people, covering all divisions and districts.
BIDS conducted the study from Might 5 to 29, 2020. It had been unveiled on Wednesday at a virtual dialogue titled "In the Shadow of COVID - Coping, Changes, Responses" organised by BIDS.
It noticed expected and significant negative effects on employment, profit and expenditures of people, especially those from low-income groups.
According to the report findings, 19.23% of participants with income significantly less than 5,000 taka reported that their income was reduced by 75%, while 23.31% participants with cash flow between 5000-15000 taka reported an income reduction by 50% relative to last month's income.
Meanwhile, SME entrepreneurs found in the rural areas happen to be being hit the hardest as a result of influence of Covid-19, as their revenue has dropped by 67% in 2020 compared to the previous year.
However, the average reduced amount of revenue for almost all SMEs is 66% in 2020 in comparison to 2019.
According to a survey titled "Covid-19 and SMEs: Understanding the Immediate Influence and Coping Strategies" twelve-monthly income was reduced by 67% in 2020 in comparison to 2019, which is 66% for every SMEs sectors.
BIDS conducted the study on 375 enterprises and 360 workers, from April 26 to May 10, 2020. The report was also unveiled on Wednesday.
As per the findings of the surveyed entrepreneurs, 76% goods produced by the business owners remain unsold.
Economic activities were not completely shut down during the lockdown, while only 16% of SMEs were open. However, it was 38.24% in cases of handicrafts and rural SMEs were opened by 11.40%, the report showed.
According to a study, Bangladesh could have 16.4 million new poor in 2020 as the income of working class in urban and rural areas contain fallen sharply as a result of lockdown to avoid the distributed of Covid-19 pandemic.
A study paper titled "Poverty in enough time of Corona: Short-term Effects of Economic Slowdown and Policy Responses through Community Security" conducted by Binayak Sen, study director of BIDS estimated the amount on Wednesday.
Under a post-lockdown optimistic situation, the country's overall poverty is to improve by 25.13%, where rural poverty will be 24.23% and urban poverty will be 27.52%.
"We ran countless scenarios -- representing successive severity of lockdown -- under the 'wealth plus labour position' approach. In a scenario where there can be an 80% drop in salary for labour category in cities and 10% drop in income for labour course in rural areas in the 'hard lockdown' exercise, we would have 16.4 million new poor," Binayak said in his presentation.
"If we look at a 25% bigger poverty line, then yet another 16% to 20% of population would be in poverty found in rural and cities. If we update our age-old poverty brand accordingly, it'll result in a much higher poverty where rural poverty would be 45%, and urban poverty will be 36%," he added.
