Almost 60 per cent of low-income households in Jamaica, that is, those earning less than the minimum wage, have registered at least one job loss linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the findings of a recent survey undertaken by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). By contrast, upper-income households on the heavily tourism-dependent Caribbean Community (CARICOM) territory, registered job losses at half that rate, media houses in Jamaica were reporting earlier this week.
Much of the toll taken on employment in Jamaica in recent months has been due to heavy job losses in the tourism sector which had been brought to a shuddering halt on account of strictures taken by airlines and cruise ships as well as severe restrictions on inward travel imposed by Jamaica.
While a report in the Jamaica Gleaner of Sunday October 11 had quoted an unemployment rate on the island of 7.3% up to January this year, the subsequent revelation that tens of thousands of jobs have been lost in the tourism sector has pushed the unemployment rate up dramatically. Earlier layoff estimates had put job losses at around 100,000, around 50% of which was linked to the hospitality industry. Though the dynamics of the sector meant that the island was still counting long after those figures had been made public.
The IDB’s jobs survey in Jamaica was reportedly conducted online back in April and the findings published in its recent quarterly report titled “The Pandemic: the Saga Continues”.
Jamaica is one of several heavily tourism-dependent Caribbean countries that have suffered heavy job losses on account of the global strictures placed on international travel in order to stem the spread of the virus. The bank said that its online survey sought to gauge the extent of the social impact that arose out of the lockdown instituted by the authorities in Kingston and which included the closure of some of the region’s most popular tourist resorts. The bank said however, that its undertaking did not meet the statistical standards of a full household survey.
The advent of the coronavirus had also meant Jamaica, like other countries in the Caribbean and Latin America, had suffered from a decline in remittances from abroad which affected low-income families, particularly, though the Bank of Jamaica has since reported that remittances have picked up since around June.
The findings of the IDB exercise also indicated that 48% of middle-class Jamaican households surveyed suffered job losses while 50% of the middle-class business owners surveyed experienced business closures.
Upper-income Jamaicans reportedly experienced closure of businesses in 32% of cases while for low-income households, closures were estimated at 45%. The report classified those earning less than US$5 a day as vulnerable and within the low-income group while earnings above US$62 a day were designated ‘high class’.
Arising out of the survey, the IDB reportedly said that Jamaica will experience significant COVID-19-related decline on account of its high dependence of tourism as a money-earner. The IDB report puts the tourism sector’s overall contribution to employment at 30% and asserts that receipts from the sector account for around 50% of the country’s export revenues.
