COVID-19 compounds public fears 20/03/2020

A quarter of all Romanian employees have savings for less than a month if they lose their jobs

Roxana Vasile, 20.03.2020, 13:50

One in two employees
in Romania fears the economic recession that could follow the COVID-19
pandemic, while a quarter of employees say they have savings to last less than
a month, in the event they lose their jobs. These are the results of a survey
conducted by BestJobs employment portal. 21% of participants say they afford to
cover utilities expenses for a maximum of three months, while some 10% for six
months. Only 7.4% of Romanians say they have savings to last them a whole year.
According to the survey, 34% of Romanians are very worried they might lose
their jobs.

Over 43% of respondents fear the coronavirus pandemic might financially
affect the companies they work for. If they find themselves without a job, 45%
of respondents say it would be hard to find a job, while 20% say it would be
very hard. In turn, over half of employers say they have contingency business
plans in place in case the coronavirus pandemic escalates in Romania. For the
time being, the main effects of the health crisis is that employees fear to
make contact with clients. Some providers couldn’t deliver their orders, prices
for certain products have gone up substantially, while employees can no longer
travel abroad to do business.

Most employees, accounting for 44% of
respondents, say they are a little worried they might get infected with the
coronavirus, while 35% expressed serious concern. 82% of respondents say they sanitize
their hands frequently, while 7 in 10 respondents say they avoid crowded public
places. Along similar lines, 67% say they make zero contact with other people.
Moreover, nearly half of respondents say they refrain from using public means
of transportation. The survey was conducted over March 9-16.

(Translated by V. Palcu)