Covid 19 has not only created physical and psychological scars in the whole wold directly infecting 5.5+ million and killing 348,223 human beings but also created a lot of financial damage too. US along has reported a staggering 38.6 million job loss.
As per BBC India jobless numbers has crossed 120 million in April. Out of which 91.3 millions were small traders and labourers. But a significant number of salaried workers – 17.8 million – and self-employed people – 18.2 million – have also lost job.
Amid eroding sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic, business technology giant Hewlett Packard Enterprise plans a major overhaul, including layoffs, that it says will save $1 billion by 2022.
As per the UN agency – International Labour Organization, globally, there are some 3.3 billion workers. Out of which 2 billion have jobs in the informal economy and 1.6 billion of them have suffered to earn a living due to COVID-19 pandemic.
In a report the agency expressed, more than 430 million enterprises in hard-hit sectors such as retail and manufacturing risk “serious disruption”.
Large companies across the global who employee massive number of employees have already either announced layoff, firing and furlough or pondering over it to do so soon.
As per the report, HPE’s revenue in the latest financial quarter fell 15% year over year to $6 billion. The company expects to save at least $1 billion by the end of its fiscal year. As per Antonio Neri, President and CEO, there is a massing pay reductions for all employees starting July 1 and running through Oct. 31. The global CEO and other executive team members along with the board members will see their base sales cut 25%, while other executives will have their pay reduced by 20%. Pay cuts for other employees will vary depending on their positions.
The company is also believed to have other plans including layoffs and other cost-cutting initiatives to save $1 billion.
At the same time, IBM has confirmed firing several thousand employees in United State. If the news to be believed, a few hundred jobs in India are also under scanner to be laid off.
Uber announced it is cutting 3,700 jobs (14% of its workforce), CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced on May 18 that he will cut 3,000 additional jobs and close 45 offices.
Airbnb announced it is laying off about 25% of its workforce, or 1,900 employees, on May 5. Its severance package includes several months’ pay, a year of healthcare, and support finding a new job.
Boeing already announced that it would cut about 10% of its workforce — or about 16,000 jobs. The cuts are expected to be through a combination of buyouts, voluntary layoffs, and involuntary layoffs.
Earlier in April, Hertz, the car rental company, which has India operations, too had expressed its intent to lay off 10,000 employees.
As per the report, India’s food delivery company, Swiggy is cutting about 1,000 jobs, most from its cloud kitchen division.
Online travel company, TripAdvisor announced that the company would be reducing its workforce due to COVID-19 pandemic, which has paralysed the travel industry.
India Condition
Although everything in India is limping back to normal but the restriction on social distancing would keep the employers under stress. Locked down for last two months, many sectors are opening now but the consumers are not seen to be so enthusiastic except for the travel industry where people stuck up in various cities would like to travel back to their destinations. At the same time, no sector is opened with 100 per cent capacity. So, the spiralling effect is inevitable as the situation of lockdown is far from being over with growth in Corona positive cases.
