The majority of Malaysians are not financially prepared for an extended movement control order (MCO), according to a study by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM). Only 6.2% of survey respondents consider themselves to be less financially affected by the MCO.

More than half of Malaysians (52.6%) said that they were “severely affected” financially during the MCO period. 24.8% respondents scored themselves as “affected” during the MCO, whereas another 16.4% said that they were moderately affected.

Those working in multi-national companies (MNCs) and government-linked companies (GLCs) were considered the most prepared for an extended MCO period, with 63.8% of MNC employees and 55% of GLC employees saying they were financially prepared for an extension. However, only 18.1% of self-employed workers, 28.7% of employers, and 34.9% of private sector employees expressed a similar financial readiness to face an extended MCO.

In the matter of savings, it was found that MNC and GLC workers were also the best off, with 75.2% and 78.9% respectively having enough savings to last up to 4 months. Meanwhile, 71.4% of self-employed workers said that they only had enough savings to last less than 1 month. As for employers and private sector workers, 77.2% and 82.7% respectively said that they only had enough savings to last 2 months.

The study also found that once again, self-employed workers were hardest hit when it came to loss of employment and reduced income. Almost half of the self-employed workers surveyed had lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and almost 95% of self-employed workers reported a loss of monthly income.

A total of 168,182 participants aged 15 years and above participated in the “Effects of Covid-19 on the Economy and Individual – Round 1” survey by DOSM.

• TAGS:
• Covid-19
• Department of Statistics Malaysia
• DOSM
• Financial Stress
• MCO
• Movement Control Order
• Survey