Survey: With Covid-19 under control, Malaysians now worried about unemployment, job safety

KUALA LUMPUR, June 1 — A recent survey has shown that Malaysians main concern now is job safety and unemployment as the Covid-19 virus is slowly held under control in the country.

Global pollster Ipsos revealed that last month, 51 per cent of Malaysians were concerned about the unemployment rate, compared to 43 per cent in April, 42 per cent in March and 39 per cent in May 2019.

Concerns over Covid-19, which were at 85 per cent in April 2020, went down 11 per cent to 74 per cent  last month.

Meanwhile health concerns which were at 15 per cent in March and 16 per cent in April, dropped to 11 per cent in May.

Financial and political corruption was at the height of Malaysians concerns in March 2020 at 60 per cent soon after the Perikatan Nasional government took office, but by May it was down to 39 per cent as the extensions of the conditional movement control order (CMCO) moved into Phase Four.

Unemployment has hit record levels in Malaysia as the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the economy, causing businesses to shut down.

The department of statistics released their own survey in which they said 50 per cent of self- employed workers are out of work after the movement control order was enforced in March due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

According to the survey titled “Effect of Covid-19 on the Economy and Individual”, 46.6 per cent of self-employed workers were out of jobs.

Employers, who made up of 2.9 per cent of survey respondents or about 4,877 people, had also been hit badly, with 23.8 per cent of them losing their businesses.

This coincides with Ipsos findings that Malaysians appetite for major purchases like cars or homes, have also been on the decline.

From a high of 50 per cent in August 2018 it now stands at 27 per cent in May 2020, lower than the Asia Pacific and global trends.

This is also reflected in the levels of comfort when buying household items which have declined from a high of 55 per cent in 2018 to a low of 30 per cent in May 2020.

The global and Asia Pacific trends are closer to 35 per cent and 40 per cent.

The Ipsos survey is conducted monthly in 28 countries around the world via the Ipsos Online Panel System. Malaysia’s monthly samples are from 500 respondents.