Stats SA produced a report on the Business impact survey of the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa.
The survey covered most sectors of the economy with the exception of agriculture, food and finance.
Key results
- The majority of responding businesses (85,4%) reported turnover below the normal range.
- 46,4% indicated temporary closure or paused trading activity.
- 50,4% expected their workforce size to stay the same in the two weeks after the survey, while 36,8% reported that their workforce size is expected to decrease.
- 28,3% indicated that their workforce has decreased working hours and 19,6% reported laying off of staff in the short term.
- 19,1% indicated that prices of materials, goods or services purchased increased more than normal.
- Access to financial resources: 23,8% indicated a decrease while 52,6% indicated access to financial resources remained the same.
- 38,2% of businesses applying for financial assistance reported that they would use government relief schemes.
- 30,6% indicated they can survive less than a month without any turnover, while 54,0% can survive between 1 and 3 months.
- 46,3% of the workforce were able to meet business demands, and 43,0% of the workforce were not able to meet business demands (the rest reported ‘unsure’).
Report by Stats SA