Gerawat: Over 4,000 S’wakians lost jobs due to pandemic
KUCHING: A total of 4,037 Sarawakians lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 pandemic over the past two years, said Deputy Minister in the Premier of Sarawak’s Department (Labour, Immigration and Project Monitoring) Datuk Gerawat Gala.
In giving a breakdown, he said 3,002 Sarawakians lost their jobs in 2020, while another 1,035 Sarawakians became unemployed in 2021.
He said the top economic sectors in the state that contributed to the retrenchments in 2020 and 2021 were the hotel and food sectors with 2,772 people retrenched; retail and sales sectors (1,328); and construction sector (1,030).
Gerawat also said that based on the Labour Department’s records, a total of 3,765 workers and 2,167 workers experienced salary reductions in 2020 and 2021, respectively, due to the pandemic.
“As a measure to lift the burden of the people, including those who lost their jobs, the state government has implemented eight packages of Sarawakku Sayang Special Assistance (BKSS) worth a total of RM5.7 billion,” he said.
He was responding to a question from Safiee Ahmad (GPS-Daro) at the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting yesterday.
Gerawat pointed out that the state government had also introduced some supportive measures which included cash assistance for the B40 group as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and postponement of rental payment for business premises.
Besides that, he said the Sarawak government also implemented graduate enhancement training programmes and industry workforce development programmes which offered industrial training.
As for the long-term measure, the deputy minister said the government will carry out more initiatives under the Post Covid-19 Development Strategy 2030 to create over 200,000 high-paying jobs by 2030.