On the global world of work, the COVID 19 pandemic is believed to have far-reaching effects which may push many people into unemployment, underemployment, and poverty. Globally, the International Labour Organization projects that about 25 million jobs could be lost due to the COVID 19 pandemic. In the United States, the Wall Street Journal estimated a possible 5 million job loss. Already, about 3.3 million Americans have filed for unemployment and experts are suggesting that this is the worse unemployment spike in America. In China, about 5 million people reportedly lost their jobs between January and February due to the corona virus outbreak.
At home, policy decisions are not suggesting a better outlook for Nigeria. In the last couple of days, several laws that have employment and labour twists have emerged at state and national levels in Nigeria. Initially, Lagos State Government imposed a partial lockdown in the state. However, with the increasing record of COVID 19 cases, a full lockdown is currently being implemented with stiff punishment for offenders. Other states, such as Rivers and Delta, have evenclosed their borders. On a national scale, the federal government has directed that all land borders should be totally closed. All airports in the country have been closed and ‘non-essential’businesses have been instructed to join the lockdown.
The COVID 19 pandemic has been envisaged to have disruptive effects on Nigeria’s trade and investment with an extremely high likelihood of elevating poverty in the country. Already, the pandemic has caused the country considerable economic losses with serious disruption of the country’s revenue. However, with the stiffer measures that are being put in place to contain the spread of the deadly virus, more serious disruptions may be expected in Nigeria’s currently pressured employment environment. In the aviation sector alone, about 22,000 job losses could result from the COVID 19 pandemic. Also, the pandemic threatens to government’s job creation plan for 2020.
Beyond the impacts on the formal sector of the country and the possible threats to employment in the private sector, the pandemic is predicted to have detrimental impacts on theinformal sector that accounts for 65% of Nigeria’s GDP and about 76% of employment in the country. By now, traders, transporters, and commodity distributors are being impacted by the closure of land borders and the lockdowns. This may mean more than a mere stop of activities but may also cumulate to financial distress, incapability to afford basic needs, and an overall breakdown in families emphasized loyed by the informal sector. The situation is worsened by the reality that many of those in the informal sector are daily wagers who often havelimited access to credit facilities.
Even with the formal sector, the lockdown due to COVID 19 may have negative tolls on employment. In service-oriented companies where profits and returns constitute most of the salaries, there is considerable opacity about the coming days. Currently, as a result of the pandemic, workforce in Nigeria is reportedly experiencing increasing pressure and excruciating pain. Similarly, Nigerian employers have also solicited support from the government to augment salary payments and avert possible job losses.
While the COVID 19 pandemic has being showing the failures of governance in Nigeria in different regards, perhaps the pandemic has also made it extremely problematic to offer solutions or possible courses of action that may savage the associated economic and social challenges. For instance, on job losses and income challenges associated with the current lockdown, there is little to advise a broke government with inadequate citizen’s data at such a time. However, with the hope of a soon end to the pandemic, Nigeria must consciously improve on its governance and ensure that lessons learnt during this period are incorporated into policies and practices in the country’s future life.