COVID-19 + The Economy

According to the World Bank, the unemployment rate in Ecuador before the pandemic hit was close to 4% (December 2019). However, in 2020, the country’s data drastically increased to an employment rate of more than 6%.

In an August 2020 article shared by The Joint Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Fund, “in Ecuador, between the months of May and June 2020, the official national unemployment rate increased to 13.3% , with the effect of the pandemic being stronger in women (15.15%) than men (11.6%).”

It is extremely important to note that these employment rates do not include those who work in the informal job market, such as street vendors, contracted domestic help, and many other professions in which our community participates. Among many other challenges posed by the pandemic, including quarantine and decreased access to public transportation, the informal job market does not allow for workers to access benefits such as social security, paid time off, sick and parental leaves, etc.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, almost 80% of our community was left without a job. Over the past 6 months, as Ecuador has slowly returned to a semblance of normalcy, almost 1/2 of the unemployed Center members have regained some sort of employment.