Freelancing.hk looks back on how the coronavirus affected business life in Hong Kong
We have moved into 2021, with most of last year taken up by adjusting to the new normal. Even though it was a bad year for restaurants and retailers, on the contrary, it was a good year for takeaway platforms, e-commerce and encouraged many businesses to move online.
Daily lives of people from Hong Kong were turned upside down for virtually the entirety of 2020 as COVID-19 raged across the globe, infecting over 8,500 people in the city, and killing more than 135. Everything such as shopping, dining, going to work and travelling, attending public gatherings, church services, weddings and funerals had to be adjusted to the ongoing health crisis and the new normal.
When the pandemic had surrounded the city in late January 2020, as a precaution, the government asked 176,000 civil servants to work from home. After that, the private sector also followed and implemented the same approach. Of course, some people have misused the given opportunity and left their homes despite being requested otherwise. For instance, some Hang Seng Bank staff were caught on social media sneaking out for a bit of fresh air.
For freelancers, this unprecedented situation has brought with it new opportunities. Many employees were forced to resign from their jobs as they did not want to risk leaving their home and going back to the office every day. In turn, this forced companies to outsource expertise from many freelancers. In terms of newcomer freelancer profiles, there is an increase up to 15 per cent according to Freelancing.hk.
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This article was published in the Freelancing.HK-News 69.