A Tentative Story of Resilience: The Impact of COVID-19 on the Pakistani Labour Market
This paper surveyed a panel of employers in Lahore to study the impact of COVID-19 on their business and the labour market
Abstract
Unlike the major economies of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has played out quite differently in Pakistan. While there was a major spike in cases in June 2020, the country witnessed a remarkable downward trend before seeing another surge in late October. We surveyed a panel of employers in Lahore, a major city in Pakistan, to study the impact of COVID-19 on their business and the labour market. We find that while many businesses temporarily closed during the pandemic, very few businesses closed permanently. Firms mostly faced low consumer demand and reduced access to finance. However, very few firms faced worker absenteeism and health issues, and layoffs have not been very extensive. Our analysis shows that these challenges vary by firm size and sector. In light of this, we recommend that the government should provide more industry and size-specific terms of finance to help with their recovery.
This work is part of the Private Enterprise Development in Low Income Countries (PEDL) programme
Citation
Maniha Aftab, Erica Field, Robert Garlick, Lala Rukh Khan, Nivedhitha Subramanian, Kate Vyborny “A Tentative Story of Resilience: The Impact of COVID-19 on the Pakistani Labour Market” PEDL C-19 Note
Link
A Tentative Story of Resilience: The Impact of COVID-19 on the Pakistani Labour Market