'We have to ration our meals': Malaysians share their struggles after COVID-19 left them jobless

KUALA LUMPUR: Over the last two months, Firdaus Feeq’s life has been turned upside down.

To make matters worse, his studio had been broken into just two days before the MCO, and the thieves got away with RM70,000 worth of high-end camera equipment.Compounded with the prospect of not being able to make any money over the next few months, Firdaus and the other owners decided to dismiss their workers and close shop.

Firdaus and his former business partners are among the hundreds of thousands of Malaysians who are jobless across the country., Malaysia’s Department of Statistics announced that the country’s unemployment rate for March was at 3.9 per cent, or 600,000 people, the highest in almost a decade. His family also has to be thrifty in their Hari Raya spending. The usual practice of shopping for new clothes, kueh and furniture could not continue.

With the tourism industry at a standstill due to COVID-19, Fadhli Hakim said that he was not surprised that there were layoffs, but admitted that he has had difficulty sleeping due to anxiety about how his job loss would affect his loved ones. Fadhli Hakim said he received severance package from Agoda and aims to get another job before the compensation money dries up.In March, Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced aThis included one-off cash handouts to the middle and lower income groups. Mr Muhyiddin said that households earning less than RM4,000 per month would receive RM1,600 in total while households that earn between RM4,000 and RM8,000 a month would receive RM1,000.

However, some of his former colleagues are less lucky as they do not have an alternative source of income.

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