Study Finds Only 6.2% Of Malaysians Have The Finances To Get Through The MCO

The report, which was published yesterday, 9 April, noted that only 28.6% of the group had enough savings that can last them for less than a month - 43% had savings for two weeks of expenses and 28.4% had savings for less than four weeks of expenses.

This is a drastic difference when compared with other groups of people who had savings of more than a month of expenses:
- 68.8% of multinational companies' (MNC) employees,
- 61.1% of Government Linked Companies' (GLC) employees,
- 50.8% of employers, and
- 42% of private sector employees.

The survey, aptly named Effect of COVID-19 on the Economy and Individual, was conducted online between 23 and 31 March on Malaysians aged 15 and above.

While a whopping 52.6% of respondents reported that their finances were severely impacted during this period.

"For the agriculture sector, 33.0% of workers in the fisheries sub-sector reported job losses whilst 21.1% in agriculture and plantation," said Chief Statistician Malaysia Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin, as reported by New Straits Times.

"In the services sector, job losses were in the Food and Beverage Services sub-sector recording 35.4%, followed by the Transport and Storage sub-sector with 18.7%."

In contrast, only 1.8% of private sector employees had lost their jobs, while only 0.4% of GLC and MNC employees had lost their jobs.

80.8% of MNC employees were working from home, while 73.7% for GLC employees.

A striking 13.2% of private sector employees were told to take unpaid leave, however, the group also reported the highest for having "no impact" due to the MCO. Employers reported the highest for taking unpaid leave at 14.5%.

A sizeable amount of individuals reported that they were working fewer hours - employers (22%), private sector employees (17.5%), GLC employees (14.7%), self-employed (13.8%), and lastly MNC workers (7.2%).

Self-employed (81.9%), employers (71.3%), and private sector employees (65.1%) reported that they were not financially prepared if there is an extension of the MCO.

The findings here show a similar trend with the amount of savings they had as mentioned earlier, except for employers - who 50% of them reported having savings of more than one month, but 71% of them reported not ready to face a MCO extension.

You can read the full report here.