Covid-19 and Singapore's wealth gap
Kelly Ng
Singapore
THE Covid-19 virus has, in just months, unleashed an unprecedented crisis for countries and disrupted the lives of millions around the world.
On the ground, different segments of the economy have been hit to different extents. Those working and living in Singapore are no exception.
For professionals able to work remotely, the pandemic presented an inconvenience - one that largely called for adapting to new working routines.
The shift to working from home, however, has left blue-collar workers behind. Many have continued to work and risk infection on the frontlines, while a significant chunk of them were laid off.
Safe management restrictions have left some businesses reeling, while an increasingly digitised economy offered new demands for the entrepreneurial ones to tap.
While a fresh Credit Suisse report this month said it's still early days to figure out what the crisis has done to global wealth distribution, there are pockets of evidence that certain groups, low-skilled workers in particular, have been hit hard and the worst is not behind them yet.
In Singapore, a boom in stock investments, rising property purchases, stubborn COE prices and staggered recovery across sectors tell the story of a K-shaped recovery.
READ MORE: Lower-income hit hardest by Covid-19, as better off still buying stocks, homes, cars
