“Sri Lanka’s economic crisis forced people into second jobs”- A Survey
“60.5% of households have experienced a decrease in their total income as a result of the economic crisis. The economic crisis significantly affected employment across multiple sectors within the country” showed in a Household Survey on the Impact of Economic Crisis – 2023 by the Department of Census and Statistics.
The most commonly reported coping strategy, utilized by 6.6 percent of households experiencing reduced income, was “Turning to a secondary job or an additional source of income.”
During the income decline, households employed various coping strategies to mitigate the impact of the economic crisis. Some employees after their office jobs in the evening came to the streets and started selling street foods for dinner and snacks.
“After my office, I straightly go to our town, by that time my wife is coming from home with the food to sell off-road. My wife only prepares all the food items at noon at our home. and she brought them to the street. I do the selling part until all the food is finished.” shared his views with Mojo News, one Milan Rodrigo an officer of a Private company in Colombo.
Also, some people have said that they used the strategies to survive by “taking Loans, mortgages, or seeking food/money contributions from others.”
But, taking loans means, they prey again if they can not settle the loan.
According to the data presented, nearly half of employed individuals encountered changes in their main job due to the economic crisis.
These changes included work breaks or temporary absences, reductions in working hours, cuts in pay or allowances, and income loss.
The survey report shows that 48 percent of those surveyed had a reduction in working hours, while 45.8 had a pay/allowance cut, or income loss.
“The data indicates a higher percentage of males who lost either their primary or secondary jobs due to the economic crisis compared to females, 18.4 percent of males lost their main job, as did 8.3 percent of females.” the survey found.
The DCS analysis examined the repercussions of the recent economic crisis on various sources of income and the fluctuations of household income.
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