An analysis made by SeConS Group and Friedrich Ebert Foundation has shown that 200.000 Serbian workers (many of them working in informal sector and as self-employed) lost their jobs during the pandemic and the state of emergency. The research was made on a sample of 1.600 people who still worked in February this year.
Half of them were dismissed because their company stopped working and one quarter because they were not offered a new contract after the expiry of the previous one. The rest was forced to quit because in a situation where no public traffic worked, where kindergartens and schools were closed and the institutions for home care of the elders stopped offering services – they simply could not reconcile their work and private life.
The mostly affected were the employees in private companies, in sectors such as catering, commerce and construction industry. Among them, the consequences of the crisis were mostly felt by the self-employed, by workers in informal sector and by those with fixed-term contracts. The cities did better than the villages and the elders better than the youth. It’s interesting that in urban areas there were more men under risk than women, while in the rural ones it was the opposite.
Round 4% of employees were forced to go on holidays and 4% did the same in agreement with the employers. One fourth worked part-time and 5.6% saw their wages reduced.
Still, the heaviest burden was borne by the women who made 86% of those in the front line of the pandemic. At the same time, in 70% of the households it was also them to do the usual housework and take care of youngsters and elders.
The most of Serbs adapted themselves well to work from home (25% of them). A majority (90%) said their private equipment was sufficient and satisfactory, while 15% stated they were less efficient than usually.
The results of the research differ a lot from the official data published by the government and speaking about only 7.317 jobless seeking for help at the counters of the National Employment Agency.
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