This pandemic has dragged on longer than we have all anticipated. It is also evident that the most affected are also the most vulnerable.

My colleague, Sameer Khatiwada, has written an insightful report: “A Crisis Like No Other – COVID-19 and Labour Markets in Southeast Asia”. I encourage everyone to read it.

While many people have the luxury of being part of the mass resignation movement, people in developing countries face mass unemployment. And this is precisely Solve Education!’s target audience.

Here are some of my takeaways, and hopefully, it can shed some light on the labour landscape and spark some interest to help!

Youth and women are among the most affected during the pandemic

The report finds that people between 15 to 24 accounted for 45 per cent of job losses, despite representing less than 15 per cent of the workforce during the height of the pandemic in 2020, in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Also, women accounted for 60 per cent of the job losses in the second quarter of 2020 in Thailand. This includes 90 per cent of the job losses in manufacturing.

We need to enable youth and women to empower themselves through education.

The pandemic worsens the inequalities between skilled and unskilled workers

As automation increased, unskilled workers found themselves jobless. The lockdowns and unfavourable economic climate also mean that informal, self-employed, temporary, and migrant workers are vulnerable to losing their livelihoods. We need to think of how to reskill/upskill these people urgently.

Also Read: How can tech help with COVID-19 control and our return to normalcy?

Manufacturing was hit hard across ASEAN

Almost a million jobs are lost in manufacturing in the Philippines, and another million are lost in Indonesia alone.

In Vietnam, this amounts to over 0.5M job losses. In Cambodia, the manufacturing sector has accounted for about 25 per cent of job losses.

Automation is here to stay. How can we empower people to access the knowledge economy?

People who have lost their jobs remained jobless

Among the people who become unemployed during the pandemic, the majority are still unemployed. As many as 91 per cent of them in Vietnam and 86 per cent in Thailand remained jobless.

Any job gains in the second half of 2020 consist of mostly informal jobs or self-employment.

Apart from reskilling, we should also consider equipping people with entrepreneurial skills, especially in cases where the local job market cannot absorb the number of people looking for jobs.

Vaccination rates remain low in most countries

As of Oct 2021, the vaccination rate in Vietnam is at 20 per cent, the Philippines at 22 per cent, Indonesia at 23 per cent, and Thailand at 38 per cent. Without high vaccination rates, borders will remain closed, and economies will struggle to recover.

We need to help our neighbours gain access to vaccines and help drive vaccination awareness.

Will the world become even more unequal post-pandemic?

Sadly, this is highly likely to happen (or is already the current reality). But crazy optimists (like us, at Solve Education!) are working to build a more inclusive and equitable future. Who is with us?

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