Almost half of South Koreans were faced with job loss or lower wage after the COVID-19 outbreak that reduced income for temporary workers and the low-income bracket, statistical office data showed Friday.

According to the May survey results unveiled by Statistics Korea, 50.3 percent of respondents said they retained job and received the same wage following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The remaining 49.7 percent said they lost their jobs or accepted a wage cut owing to an economic fallout from the pandemic.

The portion of those who maintained jobs but accepted a pay cut was 26.7 percent, and the reading for those who lost jobs stood at 14.0 percent. The figure for those who were on an unpaid leave was 9.0 percent.

The number of those who received unemployment benefits topped 600,000 in March and 700,000 in June each.

As seen in the country's past economic crises in 1998, 2003 and 2008, the COVID-19 crisis did the biggest damage to irregular employees and the low-income bracket.

Disposable income among irregular workers and day laborers shrank 3.4 percent in the January-March quarter from a year earlier, while income among regular employees advanced 3.7 percent in the three-month period.

The bottom 20-percent income bracket's disposable income added 0.2 percent in the first quarter on a yearly basis, while disposable income for the top 20-percent income group expanded 6.5 percent.

The low-income bracket spent less during the first quarter. Consumption by the bottom 20-percent income bracket declined 5.4 percent, while spending by the top 20-percent income group fell 2.1 percent.

Following the virus crisis, local consumers spent less especially on semi-durable goods, such as clothing and shoes, and education services.

Online shopping surged on strong demand for food delivery services as people refrained from traveling and eating out.

Revenue from food delivery services among online retailers amounted to 1.71 trillion won (1.57 billion U.S. dollars) as of August, about nine times higher than the revenue tallied in January 2017.

Schools adopted online classes to ease up the virus spread among students, but about half of school teachers said online learning is less than 50 percent effective than offline classes.

According to the survey, people were more scared of being criticized by others than developing the virus as of May, but situations changed in June that people were more terrified of being confirmed with the COVID-19 than others' criticism.

Regarding the government's quarantine measures and human rights issues, 78.2 percent of respondents said human rights issues should be put on the back burner to rapidly trace and test potential infections.

Source:
courtesy of XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

by XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

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