In the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 virus was spreading all over the world. Many countries went on lockdown for months, affecting businesses operating in the related country. Unemployment was rising. As a result, consumer rates were going down sharply as a response of national or regional lockdown. This being said, COVID-19 virus has caused a massive downturn in economic activities. Businesses tried to stay operating. Whether by reducing workforce temporarily or permanently.
COVID-19 pandemic has brought us to a crisis. But how bad the crisis is?
According to the data from World Economic Forum in ‘The Future of Jobs Report 2020’. It shows that unemployment average during the first half of 2020 rose to 6.6%. As a comparison, unemployment average during periods of major disruption can exceeds 10%. In 2010, it dropped to 8.5% and dropped more in 2019 to 5%. Therefore, the unemployment in 2020 is higher than last year. It is predicted that the number will increase in the end of 2020 to 12.6% and by 2021 will decrease to 8.9%. in the event that the prediction is right, the crisis we face now is almost equal to the major disruption periods.
In United States, unemployment rate rose by 10.2%, from 3.5% to 14.7% in two months. To add a comparison, during Global Financial Crisis the rate rose by 5.3% in two years period. In conclusion, the crisis in 2020 because of COVID-19 pandemic, caused more jobs to be destroyed in two months than the Great Financial Crisis did in two years.
However, how bad the crisis in United States does not apply to all countries equally. The crisis in each country depends on how the government handle the pandemic condition. If the government can handle the condition properly in the beginning, so the crisis can recover sooner.
