The Gig Economy Comes to the Rescue of the Retrenched, but at a Cost
By Yap Jo-Yee
January 2021 PENANG ECONOMIC INDICATOR
THE YEAR 2020 saw seismic shifts in the job market structure. Soon after the MCO was announced last March, unemployment rates in Malaysia jumped significantly from 3.3% in 2019 to 5.1% in Q2 of 2020 (Figure 1).Penang did not escape unscathed either. Almost 5,500 workers lost their jobs between January and June; as of Q2 of 2020, the state’s unemployment rate is at 4.4% which more than doubles the 2.0% of 2019.Young workers between 15-30 years old, who were already...
Yap Jo-Yee
is a research analyst at Penang Institute whose interests range from development issues to behavioural economics. Her latest goal is to use ggplot2 without Google’s help.
