Physical proximity and occupational employment change by gender during the COVID-19 pandemic

Arbeitspapier

Previous economic downturns such as the 2008-09 Global Financial Crisis disproportionately affected male employment due to greater contractions in industries typically filled by men (e.g., manufacturing). However, after the imposition of the 'hard' COVID-19 lockdown between 2020 quarter 1 and 2 in South Africa, both men and women lost about a million jobs. We show a higher ratio of female-to-male job loss in the 2020 recession compared to 2008- 09 is partly explained by South African women's clustering in occupations high in physical proximity (e.g., services). South African labour market data are combined with occupational work context data from O*NET to show that employment change between 2020 quarter 1 and 2 (but not 2008 and 2009) is well explained by factors specific to COVID-19 social distancing protocols. Occupations higher in physical proximity, difficult to perform from home, or deemed non-essential by government were most likely to shed jobs.

Angaben zum Objekt

• ISBN: 978-92-9267-224-9
• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: WIDER Working Paper ; No. 2022/90

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Health: General ; Labor Economics: General ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
• Thema: pandemic ; COVID-19 ; occupational sorting ; O*NET ; physical proximity ; work from home ; gender

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Mosomi, Jacqueline ; Thornton, Amy
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
• (wo): Helsinki
• (wann): 2022

Weitere Informationen

• DOI: doi:10.35188/UNU-WIDER/2022/224-9
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/267842
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:44 MEZ