Hong Kong’s unemployed need HK$35,000 handouts as coronavirus accelerates job cuts among city’s poorest, charities say
- Government should also compensate those catching the virus at work, says Oxfam Hong Kong
- Its survey of hard-up families shows fourfold increase in joblessness amid the crisis
The government should give each jobless Hongkonger HK$34,800 (US$4,500) over six months and offer compensation to those who catch the coronavirus at work, according to a charity which has reported a fourfold rise in unemployment among the city’s poorest families during the health crisis.
Of the 324 people surveyed by Oxfam Hong Kong and Kwun Tong Methodist Social Service, only 32 were unemployed before Lunar New Year, but that figure had surged to 161 within two months.
The holidays started on January 25, the same week Hong Kong confirmed its first Covid-19 cases, which now number more than 450 citywide.
The poll was conducted between March 16 and March 22 on 364 low-income families, who lived in a subdivided flat or earned a household income lower than 70 per cent of the city’s median.
They all lived in Kwun Tong, Sham Shui Po, Prince Edward, Tai Kok Tsui, and North District.
The city’s official unemployment rate reached a nine-year high of 3.7 per cent in February.
Of the 161 unemployed respondents, 30 per cent said their employers or agents did not offer new job opportunities. Nearly a quarter (22 per cent), said they were laid off, while 13 per cent lost their jobs because their companies folded.
Moreover, 40 per cent of the respondents with jobs said their employers were considering firing them because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
