Survey: one third of Czech households experience drop in income due to Covid-19
One third of Czech households have experienced a drop in income due to the restrictions related to the Covid-19 outbreak, according to the results of a poll conducted by the Public Opinion Research Centre, released on Wednesday. Nearly 50 percent of employees and 75 percent of the self-employed said they had felt the negative impacts of the coronavirus crisis.
The poll was carried out in May among more than a thousand respondents over the age of 18. Some five percent of the people who took part in it said they had trouble making ends meet. Seven out of ten households had sufficient financial reserves to last for at least three months.
By the start of May, 11 percent of households experienced a significant drop in income and 20 percent of households a moderate drop in income, the survey suggests. To the contrary, five percent of households reported an increase in income and 61 percent said their income had remained more or less the same.
“The negative impact concerned mainly unemployed or self-employed people with no employees, as well as lower-level office workers and workers in services and trade. To the contrary, pensioners were among those less affected by the situation," according to the authors of the study.
Overall, 58 percent of entrepreneurs experienced a drop in income following the introduction of restrictive measure related to the coronavirus outbreak.
Some 31 percent of respondents who are employed said their working hours were reduced as a result of the coronavirus-related restrictions. Twelve percent of employees had to take a forced holiday and four percent lost their job.
To the contrary, some eight percent of employees worked longer and 45 percent said their working hours remained unchanged.
“Some 45 percent of self-employed people experienced negative effects of the coronavirus crisis. Nearly one quarter of them were forced to close down their businesses, or lost all of their commissions, and 51 percent lost part of their commissions,” says the survey of the Public Opinion Research Centre.
Some 24 percent of self-employed respondents said the coronavirus restrictions had no effect on their work and one percentage said the number of their commissions had increased.
Seven percent of respondents said they only had financial reserves for one month, while the same percentage said their financial reserves would last for two months.
Eight percent of Czech households have sufficient savings for three months and 46 percent of respondents said their financial reserves would last for more than six months.
