Arbeitspapier
Who are the essential and frontline workers?
Identifying essential and frontline workers and understanding their characteristics is useful for policymakers and researchers in targeting social insurance and safety net policies in response to the COVID-19 crisis. We develop a working definition that may inform additional research and policy discussion and provide data on the demographic and labor market composition of these workers. In a three-step approach, we first apply the official industry guidelines issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to microdata from the 2017 and 2018 American Community Survey to identify essential workers regardless of actual operation status of their industry. We then use data on the feasibility of work from home in the worker's occupation group (Dingel and Neiman 2020) to identify those most likely to be frontline workers who worked in-person early in the COVID-19 crisis in March/April 2020. In a third step we exclude industries that were shutdown or running under limited demand at that time (Vavra, 2020). We find that the broader group of essential workers comprises a large share of the labor force and tends to mirror its demographic and labor market characteristics. In contrast, the narrower category of frontline workers is, on average, less educated, has lower wages, and has a higher representation of men, disadvantaged minorities, especially Hispanics, and immigrants. These results hold even when excluding industries that were shutdown or operating at a limited level.
- Sprache
-
Englisch
- Erschienen in
-
Series: DIW Discussion Papers ; No. 1893
- Klassifikation
-
Wirtschaft
Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
- Thema
-
COVID-19
essential workers
frontline workers
gender
race differences
hispanics
immigrants
- Ereignis
-
Geistige Schöpfung
- (wer)
-
Blau, Francine D.
Koebe, Josefine
Meyerhofer, Pamela
- Ereignis
-
Veröffentlichung
- (wer)
-
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
- (wo)
-
Berlin
- (wann)
-
2020
- Handle
- Letzte Aktualisierung
-
10.03.2025, 11:44 MEZ
Datenpartner
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.
Objekttyp
- Arbeitspapier
Beteiligte
- Blau, Francine D.
- Koebe, Josefine
- Meyerhofer, Pamela
- Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
Entstanden
- 2020
Ähnliche Objekte (12)
Who are the essential and frontline workers?
Who are the Essential and Frontline Workers?
Occupational Violence among Frontline Healthcare Workers: A Thematic Analysis
Who are the workers who never joined a union? Empirical evidence from Germany
Who are the workers who never joined a union?: Empirical evidence from Germany
Who are the workers who never joined a union? Empirical evidence from Germany
Last frontline, 4
The anticorruption frontline
Last frontline, 6
Last frontline, 5
Last frontline, 3
Last frontline, 2
Who are the essential and frontline workers?
Who are the Essential and Frontline Workers?
Occupational Violence among Frontline Healthcare Workers: A Thematic Analysis
Who are the workers who never joined a union? Empirical evidence from Germany
Who are the workers who never joined a union?: Empirical evidence from Germany
Who are the workers who never joined a union? Empirical evidence from Germany
Last frontline, 4
The anticorruption frontline
Last frontline, 6
Last frontline, 5
Last frontline, 3
Last frontline, 2
Who are the essential and frontline workers?
Who are the Essential and Frontline Workers?
Occupational Violence among Frontline Healthcare Workers: A Thematic Analysis
Who are the workers who never joined a union? Empirical evidence from Germany
Who are the workers who never joined a union?: Empirical evidence from Germany
Who are the workers who never joined a union? Empirical evidence from Germany
Last frontline, 4
The anticorruption frontline
Last frontline, 6
Last frontline, 5
Last frontline, 3