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“If the pandemic continues for the next two months, these self-employed workers will find it
harder to run their business-es, while many more freelancers will also be without an income,”
Zainul said.

He said self-employed workers and freelancers might survive on their own until June but he said
the government should provide social aid and other incentives to help them survive.

Previously, media and Creative workers union Sindikasi stated that freelancers, in general, were
extremely vulnerable during eco-nomic downturns, as they had no social security from their
clients and clients could cut off their con-tracts without any compensation, while the
government’s aid did not target them.

The government has allocated Rp 677.20 trillion (USS48.58 bil-lion) to fight the COVID-19 out-

break, with Rp 203.90 trillion allocated for social aid through the Family Hope Program, staple
food assistance, preemployment card and electricity discounts, among other things, for low-in-
come people.

As much as Rp 123.46 trillion has been allocated for mi-cro, small and medium enter-prises
(MSMEs) incentives and Rp 120.61 trillion in tax incentives forbusinesses.

The research also found that only 41 percent of employers sur-veyed said they could survive for
the next three months under current conditions, while 24 percent said they could survive for up
to six months, 11 percent for six to

12 months and 24 percent more than 12 months.

During the pandemic, 13.9 percent of the employers had laid off workers, while 49.6
respondents had furloughed employees.
As many as 2.8 million people have already lost their jobs or were sent on paid or unpaid leave
as of April 13, according to data from the Manpower Ministry and the Workers Social Security
Agency (BPJS Ketenagakerjaan).

Amanda Anindita, a Suraba-ya-based wedding and couples photoggapher, has seen declining
work opportunities and revenue during the outbreak but she continues to look for work.

“The pandemic has had abig im-pact on the wedding and event-re-lated business. Many clients
have decided to postpone their wedding events following the imposi-tion of PSBB [large-scale
social re-strictions],” said Amanda, who has built a photography business with her colleagues,
on May 27.

She feels the pressure to be Creative in findingnew opportunities as she cannot rely on her main
business anymore.

“Commercial opportunities still come to me and I can learn new skills during this time,” Amanda
said. “Recently I tried to hold a virtual photo shoot and surprisingly there are people who want
to use my skills commej-cial-ly for such a photo shoot.”

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