According to Al-Modon, the ministry of labor has confirmed that more than 4000 Lebanese have lost their jobs since October 2019, adding up to the already high percentage of unemployment in Lebanon.
The requests for consultation and termination of contracts submitted to the Ministry of Labor since October of 2019 have exceeded 4000. This indicates the number of Lebanese who have lost their jobs according to termination forms submitted by employers.
Even though this ministerial number reflects unemployment, it does not reflect the actual figures that exceed what is authorized by the ministry through legal procedures.
“Lebanon has not witnessed such figures even during the most difficult crises that Lebanon has passed through over the past years,” said the Minister of Labor Lamia Yammine.
“These figures indicate a social explosion, particularly due to the high rates of unemployment and economic decline in the indicators of growth and social stability,” Yammine proceeded to say.
The minister also warned that high rates of unemployment result in high rates of poverty, which will indirectly lead to an increase in crime and theft rates, among other social crimes.
“It is difficult to implement the legal tools and procedure at this stage. However, we are trying to work on settlements as well as trying to postpone the crisis as much as possible,” Yammine concluded.
Even though numerous countries are feeling the blazing heat of unemployment due to the global financial and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus outbreak, Lebanon has been struggling with unemployment and poverty for years.
In the United States, for instance, unemployment has exploded since March, bringing the total number of new unemployed to 26 million, which is a historically high level, “according to figures published by the [U.S.] Ministry of Labor today,” AFP explained.
These unprecedented levels came as a result of the quarantine measures adopted in the country to contain the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic.
The most pressing concern of the Lebanese people at the moment is what their government plans to do and the soonest to save the country from such a terrible disaster and its repercussions.