The impact of covid-19 on various economic sectors

Published in

Writers’ Blokke

5 min readNov 18, 2020

The sudden appearance and spread of the Coronavirus is something that everyone from every country is aware of. Businesses, lives, education, and even relationships had to be put on hold, with the speed at which the virus spread. Many people suffered and are still suffering due to the impact of the virus, not just in their health but also in the condition of the economy, changes to life choices, life goals, objectives, plans, and even dreams. Humans are species who have learned to adapt, and as the virus spread, within the period of the lockdown in various nations, lots of us had to adjust to a new way of living to deal with the sudden change. A lot of those adaptation techniques paid off, both in finances and in personal growth.

Today we’ll be taking a look at the impact of covid -19 in various economic sectors.

EFFECT OF COVID 19 ON STOCK MARKETS.

The first covid -19 case was reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Mass migration caused the virus to spread and be distributed across the globe.

In the early stages of the epidemic, China’s stock markets were negatively impacted as well as the market of other Asian countries.

The negative impact of COVID-19 on the stock market of China and other Asian countries had a spillover effect on both European and American countries.

By February 24, 2020, benchmark indices in continental Europe had fallen sharply, with Asian countries experiencing sharp declines in the stock markets. The price of oil experienced a massive decline while the price of gold soared. By the 27th of February 2020, US stock indices showed substantial declines. By the 28th of February 2020, global stock markets reported the largest decline of a single week since the financial crisis in 2008.

By 6th of March 2020, stock markets had closed down due to the financial crisis and impediments the virus was building up. Treasury securities experienced falls under 0.7% and 1.26%.

As the decline continued, the price of oil fell, and businesses began to file for bankruptcy, more countries began to look for ways to stabilize their stock markets.

Russia and Saudi Arabia concluded in reining in oil production.

By the 14th of May, the Bank of Canada concluded that they had successfully stabilized the Canadian market.

Despite the pandemic’s effect and the negative impact on the stock market, some countries have successfully stabilized their stock market, including China.

By Nov 10, due to; the announcement of Joe Biden as the president-elect, central banks reducing interest rates and improved testings for Covid-19 vaccines, amongst other reasons, global stock markets valuations soared, and the market seems to be looking at better days.

Effect of covid-19 of freelancers.

For freelancers, there seems to be a diverse slate of the covid virus’s impact, financially.

With the lack of a company or organization to back them up, freelancers were left to deal with the financial impact of the virus themselves. Companies and businesses closed down, reducing the availability of customers, and finally, more people joined the throng of freelancers meaning a reduced demand and an increased supply.

Half of the freelancers lost about 60 % of their income.

Some individuals who lost their jobs due to the lockdown and then decided to join the freelancing community seem to be impressed with the freelancing community. In contrast, others are abashed at how hard it is to progress.

The limited demand has caused a significant increase in competition, with many old-time freelancers just about ready to call it quits.

During the pandemic, the freelancing community seems to be a haven for some, and to others, a drying ocean.

One detail cannot be overemphasized; the virus has brought lots of competition to the freelancing community, and it is a trying time for many freelancers.

EFFECT OF COVID-19 ON ONLINE STORES.

While other industries might be complaining of a plunge, online stores have seen soaring in their sales with the pandemic’s spread. Since lockdowns have been strongly emphasized worldwide, more people turned to the internet and online stores to get their shopping done.

And finally, with the coming of the holidays, online stores have experienced a surge in demand despite the virus.

EFFECT OF COVID 19 ON SKILL LEARNING PLATFORMS.

Online skill learning platforms like Udacity, Udemy, and Pluralsight seemed to be struggling before the covid virus, and other platforms even dying off.

But with the virus, these platforms are soaring and experiencing a great throng of users.

People are looking for ways to keep productive and busy, and they’re turning to online learning platforms for this.

The profit levels in these companies are at an all-time high, and there’s no argument about it.

Take a look at these numbers for UDEMY;

There’s a 425% increase in user enrollments in Udemy.

80% increase in usage of the platform by business and various organizations

And a simple 55% increase in the creation of courses.

Adobe illustrator courses have experienced a 326% increase in learners.

Photoshop has also experienced a 347% increase.

All in all, we have high numbers, and online learning platforms are blossoming during this period. The pandemic period allowed them to show their strengths and ease of usage, and they took that vision and made the most of it.

As we can see from all these, various sectors experienced different sides of the virus’s impact, with some blossoming and others struggling.