Coronavirus: Report Highlights Worst Affected Sectors

A newly published report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has highlighted the sectors of the economy and the types of people who’ve been most directly impacted by the coronavirus outbreak so far.

The nationwide lockdown introduced to try to stop the spread of COVID-19 has already had a huge impact on some areas of the economy, including non-food and non-pharmaceutical retailers, the passenger transport sector, providers of accommodation and food, and the travel industry.

Meanwhile, the childcare sector has been very badly hit, as have the personal care and domestic services industries, and the arts and leisure sector, with some exceptions.

According to the IFS, younger workers are being disproportionately impacted economically by the early effects of the coronavirus crisis, with employees aged under 25 said to be 2.5 times more likely to be working in a sector directly affected by the shut down that’s happened in recent weeks.

However, for some younger people, the impact of losing their income will be softened somewhat because they live at home with parents whose jobs have not yet been affected or at least haven’t been affected as badly. 

Low earners are believed to be seven times more likely to work in a sector that’s been halted by the virus and the national response to it than people who can be categorised as high earners, the IFS has estimated.

The crisis is also being revealed to have a gender-based dimension, with women across the UK roughly one third more likely than their male counterparts to work in a sector that’s already been shut down as a result of the COVID-19 situation.

Across the economy, around one in seven people who were in work prior to the crisis were employed in a sector that’s now been shut down as a direct consequence of the virus outbreak and the resulting lockdown.

Last week, it was revealed that hundreds of thousands of British companies only have enough cash available to last them a few months, with fears growing about the potential for very large numbers of insolvencies as the coronavirus crisis unfolds.