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Fear of job losses trumps infection risk: Survey
“Having a job is a matter of survival. It is understandable that people would rather get sick than go hungry,” the Center of Reform on Economics (Core) economist Muhammad Faisal said on Tuesday.
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ndonesians are more worried about losing their jobs than contracting COVID-19 in a finding that highlights the importance of social safety nets in containing the viral outbreak.
The 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer, a survey conducted by public relations firm Edelman, revealed that 89 percent of respondents said they were concerned about job losses, which is higher than the 75 percent of people who were worried about contracting COVID-19.
Edelman surveyed around 1,150 Indonesian adults between October and November last year. The respondents comprised 200 middle-upper income citizens with post-college education and 950 others described as from the “mass population.”
“Having a job is a matter of survival. It is understandable that people would rather get sick than go hungry,” the Center of Reform on Economics (Core) economist Muhammad Faisal told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
He went on to say that, while job instability affected all social classes, lower-income citizens faced greater risks due to their usually limited career options and tendency to work in the informal sector.
Edelman’s survey shows that Indonesians are generally willing to move around to work even at the risk of spreading COVID-19, behaviour facilitated by the government’s ongoing but looser micro-scale public activity restrictions (PPKM).
Read also: Gap persists between new COVID-19 policy and reality in Jakarta neighborhoods
The sentiment in Indonesia is common across the world but much more amplified. The complete barometer, which surveyed 33,000 people from 28 countries, showed that 53 percent of global respondents feared losing their job compared with 35 percent who feared contracting COVID-19.
Both percentages are much higher than in Indonesia, a country where the pandemic displaced around 2.67 million people from their jobs and drove 1.63 million citizens into poverty in August last year, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data show. The unemployment rate stood at 7.07 percent that month.
Read also: Poverty rate hits three-year high
The unemployment rate improved to 6.26 percent in February this year as the government introduced the looser PPKM and several incentives to boost business but the country’s COVID-19 caseload remains high at around 5,000 new cases each day.
“The pandemic made it abundantly clear what so many Indonesian have been ignoring such as that we need a better healthcare system and that we need to address poverty,” said Edelman Indonesia corporate and public affairs director Maria Tobing on April 29.
The government is allocating Rp 699.43 trillion (US$48.78 billion) in national economic recovery (PEN) funds this year wherein 26.7 percent goes to small business aid, 25.2 percent to healthcare programs, 22.5 percent to social protection programs and the remainder to other programs.
Read also: Government pledges higher spending boost to focus on health
Edelman’s survey also found that employees put more importance on job skilling programs, regular communications and keeping workers safe amid the pandemic.
“Reskilling and upgrading programs are necessary. The government should have a big role, but the private sector can also provide vocational training,” said Core’s Faisal.
