Pandemic job losses in Southeast Asia hit the young

MANILA — Southeast Asia’s youth and women bore the brunt of job losses during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an Asian Development Bank report released on Thursday.

The report focusing on labor markets in Southeast Asia says people aged 15 to 24, who represent less than 15 percent of the workforce in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, accounted for as much as 45 percent of job losses at the height of the pandemic in 2020. In Thailand, women accounted for 60 percent of all job losses, including 90 percent in manufacturing, in the second quarter of 2020.

The report says young workers were more likely to lose jobs mainly because they dominated hard-hit sectors, such as hotels, restaurants, and wholesale and retail trade, while women were more likely to leave the labor force, mainly to take care of their families during the pandemic.

Unlike in previous crises, the report says supply chain disruptions, a decline in domestic and international demand, mobility and travel restrictions, and limited possibilities of working remotely led to massive job cuts in agriculture, wholesale and retail.

The pandemic also exacerbated growing inequalities between skilled and unskilled workers, hurting low-skilled and middle-skilled workers whose jobs face automation or are being moved elsewhere. The most vulnerable groups were informal workers, self-employed workers, temporary workers and migrant workers, according to the report.

“Despite unprecedented government responses, COVID-19 has exposed significant social protection gaps associated with high and persistent informality across the region,” says Ramesh Subramaniam, ADB director general of Southeast Asia.

As recovery takes hold, he says the focus of fiscal policy “can shift more strongly from relief to stimulus and from stimulus to structural investments that will promote sustained and inclusive growth”.

The pandemic and the risk of slower economic growth and increased inequalities have underscored the need for fiscal policy to increase investments in social protection and its infrastructure, says Ayako Inagaki, ADB director of human and social development for Southeast Asia.

Inagaki says countries should boost investment in human capital and mobilize domestic resources to build inclusive, sustainable social protection programs and increase social insurance contributions.