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PANDEMIC-HIT FREELANCERS HAVE NO SAFETY NET

Pandemic-hit freelancers have no safety net

Fifty-five percent offreelancers say they have lost their jobs

Kiza lioiriilaMufti

The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Freelancers and entrepreneurs are among those who have been hit hard by the COVID-19
outbreak, many of whom are reporting in-come losses and declining activity, with no safety net
or government aid in place to soften the fail.

David Rahman, 27, a freelance music teacher, is generating no income after all learning activi-
ties were moved online in March.

“It is impossible to teach music online because students do not have their own musical in-
struments at home. Many music competitions for students were canceled, so the schools
stopped music courses just like thatDavid told The Jakarta Post. on May 27.

Before the pandemic, David earned an income by teach-ing music once a week at eight schools,
ranging from elementary to juniorhigh schools in Jakarta.
“Since I’m not teaching any-more, I’m not getting paid either,”' he added. Today, David is
tempo-orarily jobless and relying only on his savings to survive as finding other freelance jobs i
n music is also difficult at the time.

The COVID-19 outbreak has disrupted business activity, forc-ing offices and factories, as well
as schools and entertainment cen-ters to shut their'doors as people stay home to contain the
corona-virus spread. As a result, millions of people have lost their jobs.

Research by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) in collaboration with the University of
Indonesia (UI) and the Manpower Ministry involving 2,160 participants with different jobs, found
that 55 percent of freelancers respondents reported that they had lost their jobs, while 58
percent had no income due to the health crisis.

Meanwhile, 38 percent of the

freelancer respondents had fewer jobs, while 28 percent reported a declining income.

The survey also revealed how the outbreak had battered entre-preneurs, as 52 percent of self-
employed respondents reported a decline in production activity and income, Meanwhile, 40
percent of them had halted business activity altogether.

Zainul Hidayat, a researcher at UI’s demography cehter at the School of Economics and
Business, said on May 20 that if the survey results were simulated to the national figure, an
estimated 10 million self-employed people had stopped working and 15 million freelancers had
become job-less due to the pandemic.

Statistics Indonesia data show that more than 5.6 percent of em-ployed Indonesians or around
74.03 million people worlced in informal sectors, which included freelancers and entrepreneurs,
in February.

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