In: Economics
The corona virus (covid-19) pandemic has affected all
economic activities in both developed and
developing economies. From a labour economics perspective, explain
and analyze the implications
of this pandemic on ANY labour market of your choice
The corona virus (covid-19) pandemic has affected all
economic activities in both developed and
developing economies. From a labour economics perspective, explain
and analyze the implications
of this pandemic on ANY labour market of your choice
At least 2000 words required and references too thanks
The corona virus has affected the global economy as a whole and most of the economic sectors across the globe have been stalled with those effects. The international trade has been lowered and with the lockdown measures that have been implemented across the globe, most of the industrial production have been stalled or reduced and the focus has been shifted to healthcare and ensuring the basic living standards. Thus, this means that the essential sectors are now given more importance and hence other sectors are being marginalised.
Covid-19, as discussed above has had serious implications on almost all sectors of the economy across the globe. With the lowering of industrial production and related manufacturing difficulties, it is the labour sector that have been affected the most. The influence on the work force has also been country specific. While most of the capitalistic nations have been able to induce lower regulations on the lockdown measures, most of the other countries were affected on a large scale with the introduction of these lockdown measures. Let us now analyse the influence of the pandemic on the labour force across the globe at first and then consider a country like India where all the types of jobs are visible so that a proper analysis of the effects could be done
Effects of Covid-19 on labour market across the globe
The following are seen to be the effects of the pandemic on the general labour functions across the globe
· Most of the industrial processes were stalled with the lockdown measures which resulted in losing jobs for many of the industrial labourers
· The middle and low-income labourers have been affected the most since they forms the major portion of industrial labourers.
· According to the statistics, the unemployment rate has hit the highest since the great depression of 1930’s to more than 23% across the globe
· It is estimated that about 200 million jobs might be lost across the globe as a response to the lockdown measures that were implemented
Covid-19 impact on the labour market of India
Indian labour market represents a wider range of labourers ranging from the very low-income farming community to high ended professional labourers. Thus, the effect of the pandemic on an economy can be studied at best from the labour market of India. The following are seen to be the influence of Covid-19 on the Indian labour market
· It is estimated that more than 25 million jobs have been already lost and further effects on the job losses are expected
· The unemployment rate which was about 7% in January 2020 reached more than 23% by May 2020.
· The urban unemployment rate has been further increased with more than 30% of the urban labourers losing their jobs in the lockdown period
· About one-third of the work force in India are made of casual workers and thus most of them have been affected badly by the pandemic and related measures
· Indian economy consists of more than 140 million farming households and hence with reduced transportation facilities, most of the fam produces have been destroyed which has had serious negative effects on the income of these farming communities.
· About 85% of the farming community belongs to the group of small and marginal farmers which escalates the above issues further.
· India is estimated to be home to more than 75 million MSME’s and about 25% of those were forced to face lockdown measures which has had negative implications on their production potentials and thus had serious influence on those labourers.
· The MSME sector provides jobs to more than 100 million people and contributes to more than 30% of the GDP which represents the impacts further.
· The IT sector employments have also been affected, but with work from home methods, much of them have been protected.
Thus, from the above analysis of the impact of Covid-19 on various sectors of employment across the globe and India in particular reveals the fact that most of the jobs have seen serious negative implications with the spread of this pandemic and thus proper measures must be implemented in the near future so as to retain the job security both across th globe and India in particular.