In contrast to higher-income nations like Canada, lower-to-middle-income countries still experience high unemployment rates in the wake of COVID-19 lockdowns and economic restrictions, according to a recent study conducted by York University in collaboration with the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
In contrast, during the global economic crisis of 2008–2009, higher-income nations suffered more from the recession than did lower-income nations.
The study compared macroeconomic variables including unemployment and inflation across Nigeria, South Africa, and Canada, representing lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income countries, respectively. It did this by using Twitter sentiments.
They discovered that all three countries’ unemployment rates rose during the start of the pandemic; however, Canada was able to reduce the rate after the first few months, in contrast to Nigeria and South Africa, which are still dealing with high levels of unemployment.
Jude Kong, an assistant professor at York University and the director of the Africa-Canada AI & Data Innovation Consortium, believes that the study “indicates how vulnerable lower-middle income countries are to lockdowns and economic limits, bearing a greater loss during the COVID-19 epidemic” (ACADIC).
Nigeria’s unemployment rate was lower than South Africa’s before COVID-19, lockdowns, and economic restrictions, while South Africa’s inflation rate was lower than Nigeria’s. But compared to Canada and South Africa, unemployment and inflation rates in Nigeria have risen faster throughout the pandemic.
Particularly in Canada and Nigeria, which have both had high unemployment and high prices throughout the pandemic, the inflation rate is rising in all three countries right now.
“All income country groups have been impacted by the COVID-19 disaster.
However, the lower economic classes bear a disproportionately greater burden.
It will be challenging to recover from this complexity, particularly for middle-income countries, warns study co-author Professor Bruce Mellado, member of the Gauteng Premier COVID-19 Advisory Committee and co-president of ACADIC.