MCO: Almost 50% of self-employed Malaysians out of work, survey finds

PETALING JAYA: Almost 50% of self-employed Malaysians are out of work after the movement control order (MCO) was imposed due to the Covid-19 outbreak, according to a survey by the Department of Statistics.

The online survey, which was conducted from March 23-31, recorded responses from a total of 168,182 respondents aged 15 and above.

Self-employed workers made up 11.7% or about 19,675 of the total respondents in the survey.

According to the survey titled "Effect of Covid-19 on the Economy and Individual", 46.6% of self-employed workers were out of work.

Employers, who made up 2.9% of survey respondents or about 4,877 people, had also been hit badly, with 23.8% of them losing their businesses.

Of the self-employed workers who were still working, almost 95% experienced a drop in income and of this, 35.5% had their incomes drop by more than 90%.

The survey found that 28.3% of employers experienced a drop in income of more than 90%.

The survey also found that 71.4% of self-employed workers had savings which could not last for more than one month and that 81.9% of them were not ready if the MCO was to be extended further.

Similarly, 71.3% of employers surveyed were not financially ready if the MCO were to be extended.

The survey found that workers with government linked companies (GLC) and multinational companies (MNC) were the least affected overall by the MCO, with 78.9% and 75.2% of them respectively having savings that could last up to four months.

The MCO was first enforced from March 18-31, and was extended further to April 14.

Overall, only 6.2% of respondents said they were not financially impacted by the MCO, while 52.6% said they were “very affected” by it.

Respondents from Sabah (66.7%) said they were very affected by the MCO followed by Kelantan (65.5%) and Perlis (64%).

Bernama reported that the government would be announcing on the MCO status on Friday (April 10).