Owing to the economic toll of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on their activities, almost a thousand business companies have laid-off workers. It was in just the first nine days of August.
The Department of Labor and Employment (Dole)’s new job loss study revealed that as of Aug. 9. A total of 944 businesses reported having let go of their combined 16,134 employees. Meanwhile, laid-off workers downsizing or shutting down their operations.
This means that an average of 1,792 workers was already being laid off. Then, it was on a daily basis for this month. It showed that it was higher than the daily average of 1,686 recorded in June when the greatest number of layoffs were recorded this year.
To date, 157,705 workers from 7,759 businesses have lost their jobs due to retrenchment or permanent closure of their workplace.
By geographical area, Metro Manila had the most number of displaced workers at 75,178. Then, Calabarzon was at 32,421 and Central Luzon was at 17,368.
Last week, lockdown went for some of the regions. They were the National Capital Region and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal. It aimed to provide a breather for health workers, particularly as COVID-19 cases continued to rise in those areas.
The reimposition of the updated two-week, strengthened neighborhood quarantine restricted business activities to only critical services to monitor people’s movement.
Dole said that the administrative and support services sector remains the most affected industry, accounting for nearly a quarter of all displaced jobs, or 36,578.
There are now a total of 83,135 businesses that have temporarily closed down, affecting at least 2 million workers.
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