With the covid-19 induced pandemic hitting all sectors of the society, according to a study conducted in the UK, more than half of the people who lost their jobs in the pandemic were non-white British.
The reason behind the figures is these non-white people worked in fields, which were affected the most due to the calamity. The arenas majorly include hospitality and leisure industries, both of which are dominated by youngsters.
The study-conductors, Resolution Foundation think-tank said in its research out of all the employed people in the UK prior to the pandemic, 19 percent of them, aged between 18-24 years along with 22 percent of ethnic minority workers lost their source of income. After being sent on vacations, keeping in mind the pandemic, many employers sacked their workers.
The think-tank’s work was carried out on a study done with 6,000 individuals in the latter half of September, with YouGov, a polling company, conducting it.
While sectors of hospitality and leisure suffered the most job losses, people who had a temporary job or those who were having an insecure job even before the rise of the disease lost their work as well. These groups of people belonged largely to the younger and non-white category, as the jobs are most commonly taken up by them in the UK.
Although race dint likely plays a major role in signifying or cementing one’s job, the age factor had an impact as with the younger group of workers, there was a greater chance of them quitting the job even after adopting other disadvantageous factors.
Moreover, the study also found that less than half of these workers managed to find another job after losing their earlier ones. It brings to light the tunnel the UK has to go through in terms of unemployment for an undefined period of time post the pandemic as well.
An analyst of the study’s parent company Resolution Foundation, Kathleen Henehan said, “Worryingly, fewer than half of those who have lost their jobs during the pandemic have been able to find work since.”
She added, “This suggests that even if the public health crisis recedes in a few months’ time, Britain’s jobs crisis will be with us for far longer.”
As not many of these people had experience in other fields of work, very few of them applied for jobs that weren’t similar to the ones they had worked in earlier. This could point to the beginning of long-term unemployment, raising the worries of many.
About 9 million people had been furloughed during the initial hits of the virus. One third of these jobs belonged to the private sector. However, employees still were paid 80 percent of their usual salaries.
Currently, a little over 2 million jobs are left either partially or completely furloughed due to the pandemic.
According to the official data received from sources, the jobless rate in the UK was found to be 4.5 percent during the three months until August (June, July, and August). The Resolution Foundation’s estimation said the September’s rate was around 7 percent and this rose to 20 percent for people between the age groups of 18-24 years.
