Half of Gautengers who lost jobs due to Covid-19 are still unemployed: survey

The Quality of Life Survey has found the socioeconomic fallout the Covid-19 pandemic has brought on Gauteng has increased, raising the percentage of households living below the average poverty line to 36% from 25% in 2017/18.

Half of those who lost their jobs during the height of the pandemic have been unable to find work.

From October 2020 to May 2021, Quality of Life Survey fieldworkers visited Gauteng’s 529 provincial wards, where they interviewed 13,616 adults.

The results were compared to previous surveys showing the changes in the wake of the pandemic.

These changes were either caused by the lockdown restrictions or a more general loss of demand and economic downturn.

The findings were:

• 4% of adults closed a business permanently;
• 11% lost a job; and
• 19% took a cut in salary and working hours since March 2020.

Of those who lost their jobs or closed their businesses, 50% were unable to find new work and 7% have dropped out of the job market completely.

According to the survey, white respondents and those with higher levels of formal education were notably more likely to have found new jobs than African respondents or those with lower levels of education.

“This provides a stark example of the differential ability of people to ‘bounce back’ from shocks,” according to the survey.

TimesLIVE