ifo Institute: Coronavirus Crisis Hits Self-Employed Hard – Dependent Employees Lose Relatively Little

More than half (61 percent) of the self-employed were unable to work at all or worked only to a limited extent during the pandemic. “It is worrying that the crisis is hitting the weak particularly hard,” says Clemens Fuest, President of the ifo Institute. He adds: “Among the self-employed, it has particularly affected women who are single parents, 85 percent of whom had to reduce or completely stop their activities. Among dependent employees, meanwhile, it is low earners, secondary school graduates, and blue-collar workers who have suffered the most. These groups should be the focus of further policy action.”

Despite these losses, the government’s measures meet with a high degree of acceptance. Almost two-thirds of all citizens (65 percent) consider the policy measures adopted in March to combat the coronavirus pandemic to be correct. “During the coronavirus crisis, policymakers have given people the feeling that they really care about what affects and worries the majority,” says forsa’s Managing Director Manfred Güllner. Nevertheless, Germans are still concerned about the further course of the pandemic:  40 percent consider a second wave of infection likely; 37 percent estimate the chance of a second wave at 50–50.

The aim of this unique interdisciplinary project led by the German Federal Ministry of Health is to obtain new and representative data on the extent to which the population is affected by the coronavirus crisis. It is collecting data on infections and antibody production as well as on the socioeconomic, socio-psychological, and medical consequences of the crisis. Data is being collected over a period of five months, in two rounds of investigation and interviews.

Besides the ifo Institute and forsa, the project’s other collaboration partners are Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, PI Health Solutions GmbH, Atlas Biolabs GmbH, and the Cologne Center for Genomics.