Question

How quarantine has changed your life and impacted the lives of the wider population? Look into the impact on the economy, labor market, and social forces. Write a specific note on economic life, personal life, professional life(job), technological advancement and accessibility, and sports are examples of possible topics.

Answer 1

Answer :

The UN’s Framework for the Immediate Socio-Economic Response to the COVID 19 Crisis warns that “The COVID-19 pandemic is far more than a health crisis: it is affecting societies and econ­omies at their core. While the impact of the pandemic will vary from country to country, it will most likely increase poverty and inequalities at a global scale, making achievement of SDGs even more urgent. Assessing the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on societies, economies and vulnerable groups is fundamental to inform and tailor the responses of governments and partners to recover from the crisis and ensure that no one is left behind in this effort.

Without urgent socio-eco­nomic responses, global suffering will escalate, jeopardizing lives and livelihoods for years to come. Immediate development responses in this crisis must be undertaken with an eye to the future. Development trajectories in the long-term will be affected by the choices coun­tries make now and the support they receive.” The United Nations has mobilized the full capacity of the UN system through its 131 country teams serving 162 countries and territories, to support national authorities in developing public health preparedness and response plans to the COVID-19 crisis. Over the next 12 to 18 months, the socio-economic response will be one of one of three critical components of the UN’s COVID-19 response, alongside the health response, led by WHO, and the Global Humanitarian Response Plan.

As the technical lead for the socio-economic response, UNDP and its country offices worldwide are working under the leadership of the UN Resident Coordinators, and in close collaboration with specialized UN agencies, UN Regional Economic Commissions and IFIs, to assess the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on economies and communities. The assessment reports available on this site contain the preliminary findings of regional and country analyses.

Economic Impact :

Historic contraction of per capita income

The pandemic is expected to plunge most countries into recession in 2020, with per capita income contracting in the largest fraction of countries globally since 1870. Advanced economies are projected to shrink 7 percent. That weakness will spill over to the outlook for emerging market and developing economies, who are forecast to contract by 2.5 percent as they cope with their own domestic outbreaks of the virus. This would represent the weakest showing by this group of economies in at least sixty years.

Every region is subject to substantial growth downgrades. East Asia and the Pacific will grow by a scant 0.5%. South Asia will contract by 2.7%, Sub-Saharan Africa by 2.8%, Middle East and North Africa by 4.2%, Europe and Central Asia by 4.7%, and Latin America by 7.2%. These downturns are expected to reverse years of progress toward development goals and tip tens of millions of people back into extreme poverty.

Emerging market and developing economies will be buffeted by economic headwinds from multiple quarters: pressure on weak health care systems, loss of trade and tourism, dwindling remittances, subdued capital flows, and tight financial conditions amid mounting debt. Exporters of energy or industrial commodities will be particularly hard hit. The pandemic and efforts to contain it have triggered an unprecedented collapse in oil demand and a crash in oil prices. Demand for metals and transport-related commodities such as rubber and platinum used for vehicle parts has also tumbled. While agriculture markets are well supplied globally, trade restrictions and supply chain disruptions could yet raise food security issues in some places.

Personal and Professional Impacts:

There’s plenty of data swirling around about COVID-19 right now–most importantly dealing with testing, infections, hospitalizations, deaths, and the results of efforts to flatten the curve. For local governments, there is also a focus on unanticipated costs, revenue shortfalls, and staffing cuts. To add one more key dimension to that data, the Center for State and Local Government Excellence (SLGE) and ICMA-RC have just completed a new poll of employee views on how COVID-19 is affecting them personally and professionally. This poll reveals that public employees are deeply worried about their personal safety, family finances, losing their job, furloughs, and pay and benefit reductions. Despite their concerns, the research finds that public employees value serving their communities during this difficult time and feel that working in the public sector during the pandemic is a source of pride.

Financial impacts

• 56 percent say their families have been negatively impacted financially.
• 25 percent expect to take on more debt over the next year.
• 74 percent are concerned the pandemic will affect their ability to be financially secure throughout retirement.

Job impacts

• 74 percent are doing at least some work remotely.
• Of those who reported that the pandemic has impacted the nature of their job, 63 percent said that it has been a difficult adjustment.
• 80 percent are concerned about staying protected from the virus while at work.
• For 20 percent, the pandemic has made them consider changing jobs.
• Going forward, most foresee continuing incorporation of social distancing (70 percent) and health precautions, such as wearing masks or gloves (66 percent), as part of their working conditions.

Personal impacts

• 22 percent have had a spouse/partner’s employment impacted by the virus, whether via layoff or a change in their number of work hours.
• 44 percent report feeling pandemic-related stress.
• 70 percent feel they have received sufficient COVID-19-related information from their employer.

While many of the polling results reflect concerns on the part of the respondents, there were also a number of positive findings, particularly regarding being of service to the public:

• 61 percent value serving the community during this difficult time.
• 48 percent feel that the public is now more aware of the importance of the work they do.
• While burnout and depression were among the emotional reactions (27 and 22 percent, respectively), employees also expressed feelings of gratitude (33 percent) and optimism (15 percent).

COVID decimating the labor force around the world :

Since March, approximately 11.9% of workers across the 20 nations have registered as unemployed or otherwise benefitted from formal assistance provided through government support of employers. This represents 58 million workers.

Yet, because different countries have relied on different policy responses, there is tremendous variation across countries in whether affected workers have filed for unemployment insurance or accessed benefits through a short-term program that funds businesses to retain their workers. Overall, we find that 6.8% of workers (33 million) in this group of 20 countries have filed unemployment insurance claims through the traditional or expanded unemployment benefits systems, whereas 5.1% of workers (25 million) have received benefits from employer-supported programs that are designed to defray most of the costs of furloughing workers and keep them connected to their employer.

The United States stands out with 14.8% of its workforce having filed for unemployment benefits (Figure 1), which is the highest among the 20 countries surveyed. On the other end, Germany actually saw a decline in the share of its workers filing for unemployment insurance in March, 2020, even as an estimated 20% of its workers availed themselves of short-term benefits channeled from the government to employers (Figure 2).

As for the larger issue of how social distancing policies relate to economic disruption, these data show that there is no clear relationship between social distancing and the degree of economic harm. There is a modest negative relationship between testing and mortality, but at this stage in the epidemic, countries that have suppressed mortality are no better off economically