With the COVID-19 pandemic (hopefully) coming to a close, people have begun trying to return life to how it was before the pandemic. Though not many people still suffer from the disease itself, it has brought undeniable changes to our society and economy. During quarantine, many industries, particularly tourism and service sectors, were hit hard by the lack of customers, and even jobs seemingly unaffected by working from home were disrupted too. With unemployment rates higher than it has ever been, what has become of those that aren’t wealthy to begin with?
While poverty can have many causes, in most cases the only way to escape it is by finding a stable income, usually through a job. But during the pandemic, as many companies were already under major economic stress, they had to fire many people in order to cut down on expenses. For example, Cathay Pacific axed 8500 roles in October 2020, causing 5300 people in Hong Kong alone to go unemployed. Though some of them found a new chance in other marketing industries due to their experience in dealing with travellers, many others weren't as fortunate. This effect can be seen across the globe, with unemployment rates in 2020 reaching 6.57%, higher than the previous 20 years. The waves of unemployment only further excaberates the current problem of inequality in urban areas, as shown by phone surveys conducted by the World Bank. According to the survey, by comparing the losses between the bottom 40 percent and top 60 percent of the income distribution of each country, it was found that the bottom two quintiles were more likely to lose income than the upper three quintiles, with 29 out of 34 countries reporting such results. This indicates that the pandemic was particularly hard on poor urban households and may have increased inequality in certain areas as well. Unable to support themselves, these households will only further spiral into the pit of poverty.
Another factor increasing the burden on the poor is the inflation during the pandemic. Though at first due to quarantine both supply and demand were low, after containment policies eased people began consuming more, while industrial production still needed time to recover. The heightened demand coupled with low supply caused prices of goods to rise. Without the money to afford daily necessities such as food, the poor had a much harder time getting through the pandemic.
Fortunately, governments around the world did not just sit by and watch this happen. Other than policies to encourage companies to hire more people, compensations were also given out to those who were fired amidst the chaos to help them get back their lives on track. However, these are only band-aid fixes to an underlying problem that has existed for years before the pandemic, which is the inequality between the rich and the poor. Though the pandemic is over, we must still stay vigilant about the root of the problem, and help those who are in need, whether their poverty is caused by the pandemic or not.
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