Unemployment rates in Lebanon increased after the layoffs of workers and employees increased and hundreds of companies and institutions were closed without warning, under the pretext of limiting financial losses after the exacerbation of the financial and economic crisis in the country, the failure of the relevant authorities to limit losses, bleeding production sectors, and expelling workers and employees.
A financial expert says to Al Jazeera Net - prefer not to be named - that the Lebanese financial crisis threatens the entire social peace, which threatens with dire consequences that may not be free of security tensions that affect the fragile civil peace mainly, and this expert adds that "Lebanon's financial crisis is due to a clear bankruptcy" To the Lebanese banking sector and the country's poor financial management. "
Quick collapse
The acceleration of the financial meltdown in Lebanon during the first half of this year, after it was recording - according to the financial expert - a slow decline starting from the beginning of the year 2019, to a comprehensive economic collapse, the negative aspects of which began to appear clearly with the increasing operations of closing commercial, industrial and tourist institutions, and demobilization Indiscriminate and organized at the same time for workers and employees, and digest their rights under the pretext of financial bankruptcy.
According to a statistic of the National Social Security Fund, 21,450 wages left the labor market, while the employment movement in 2020 slowed by 71%.
According to the figures issued by the fund, 37.5% of the authorized employees of the guarantee work with less than one million pounds (about 661 dollars), which is less than the highest poverty line defined by about 1.5 million pounds (about 991 dollars), while 86% work with less than 3 million Lira (1983 dollars).
With the collapse of the national currency exchange rate, salaries lost more than 80% of their value, especially since the dollar has three exchange rates in the country, as it is according to the official price of 1510 pounds, and according to the price of the digital platform organized by the Bank of Lebanon with money changers is 3800 pounds, and in the parallel market exceeds 8500 liras.
For its part, the Director General of the Ministry of Labor, Marilyn Atallah, says that her ministry has noticed an increase in the rate of companies that have submitted requests for consultations to terminate their workers ’contracts, and she adds to Al-Jazeera Net that the number has exceeded 325 today, indicating that there are more than 6500 workers who have been laid off, but this number does not It reflects the actual reality of the number of employees or companies that closed, especially since some companies do not authorize their closure, and many laid-off workers do not resort to the Ministry to report their layoffs.
Social disaster
The layoffs of employees and employees from their institutions and other closures for financial reasons will enter Lebanon in a social catastrophe, says researcher at the International Information Corporation, Mohamed Shams El Din, to Al Jazeera Net.
He adds that 95% of the workforce in Lebanon gets their salaries in the national currency, and that the erosion of purchasing power due to the collapse of the exchange rate of the lira led to a significant increase in the prices of the food basket for a family of 4 or 5 individuals.
Shams al-Din explains that the value of the food basket amounted to about 450 thousand liras in this family last June, but today it rose to about one million liras, or 122%.
Shams Al-Din expresses his fear of closing more institutions and laying off workers, which will negatively affect the lives of the Lebanese, and he expressed his belief that the number of unemployed people may reach 65% of the workforce in the country (according to a previous statistic of the Lebanese Central Statistics released late 2019. Working in Lebanon about one million and 794 thousand workers), in addition to the return of about 200 thousand Lebanese workers working abroad after they lost their jobs.
Shams El Din says that the number of unemployed in Lebanon to one million will lead to an increase in the poverty rate.