As well as displacing thousands of residents, last month's earthquake that devastated much of West Sumatra is likely to render many workers in the province jobless.

About 200,000 workers are expected to lose their jobs in the province following the 7.6-magnitude quake, West Sumatra Industry and Commerce Chamber (Kadin) head Asnawi Bahar said on Saturday.

He said a number of hotels, malls and hospitals toppled or severely damaged by the Sept. 30, 2009 quake in Padang have started to lay off their workers.

So have scores of companies, small businesses and traditional markets, Asnawi added.

"The impact is huge to the future of the economy, particularly for businesspeople whose factories and other buildings have been destroyed," he told The Jakarta Post.

"Therefore, we expect the government to declare the quake a national disaster so special assistance can be allocated toward economic recovery in West Sumatra, especially Padang," he added.

Earlier, the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry had predicted that as many as 170,000 residents in the quake-rattled province could lose their jobs after the disaster.

Business entities, which have begun laying off their workers in Padang, include The Ambacang Hotel, Rocky Plaza Hotel and Bumiminang Hotel, as well as the Ramayana shopping center at Plaza Andalas, data from Kadin shows.

The Ambacang, which was severely damaged by the quake, had to lay off 130 of its workers, the Rocky Plaza Hotel 120, and Bumiminang 200.

Ramayana has meanwhile moved 76 of its permanent employees to its branches in other regions and terminated the contracts of all of its casual staff.

In a related development, around 200 workers of the BMC (Bunda Medical Center) public hospital in Padang staged a protest Saturday as their company forced them to resign because it could no longer afford to pay them.

Asnawi said the impact of the collapse in business activities caused by the powerful quake on the socio-economic life would start to be felt in the next three months.

The closure of some hotels, hospitals, shopping centers and traditional markets will impact thousands of small businesses and farmers who supplied them with their products, he added.

"The central government and the local administrations must immediately discuss this issue and start putting in place recovery efforts," Asnawi said.

"We don't want businesspeople in West Sumatra to go bankrupt and lose their assets or flee to other regions," he added.

Kadin suggested that as part of the economic recovery efforts, the government should ease banking and tax rates for businesses.