Businesses laid off a quarter of employees, trimmed 18 percent pay during the lockdown, survey says

The survey showed that half of the companies’ business is financed by debt and as a result, they were unable to pay their employees as their cash flow dried up.

The four-month-long lockdown imposed by the government to prevent the spread of Covid-19 pandemic forced 61 percent of businesses to close down completely, causing a dire effect on the economy by rendering tens of thousands of people jobless and disrupting the production and supply chain, according to a survey released on Wednesday.