Libya — Labor market assessment
49
Lack of provision of support was reported as a challenge by 95% of businesses surveyed. This included the lack of any form of financial support (e.g., loans), as well as the provision of assets (such as equipment and supplies), and training. Most of the businesses in the PSS sample mainly cater for local markets. On average companies report that 65% of their income comes from local markets. In addition, 12% of income comes from markets within their region. Only about 2% of income on average comes from exports. In terms of resources assessment, the majority of businesses rated the availability of relevant market supplies as “very bad” especially in their city/area (67%) and international markets (77%).
6.2 Contextual Challenges COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the financial climate
More recently, the global outbreak of COVID-19 has added a new layer of complexity to the Libyan labor market, presenting new challenges to an already fragile private sector. Overall, there was an overarching agreement in the PSS that COVID-19 had an impact on businesses in Libya; 84% of businesses surveyed said it had an adverse impact, across all sectors, but the most affected were businesses in manufacturing, agriculture, construction, and wholesale goods. Furthermore, the most agreed-upon impact of the pandemic was ‘making lower sales/profits’, followed by ‘increased prices of production’, illustrating a further blow to economic stability. Other key effects included ‘absence of inputs needed for production’ (37%), ‘challenges of getting products’ (39%), and ‘using company savings’ (32%).
