Early Labor Market Impacts of COVID-19 in Developing Countries
The economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic sharply reduced mobility and economic activity, disrupting the lives of people around the globe. This brief presents estimates on the crisis’ impact on labor markets in 39 countries based on high-...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/607281611295650533/Early-Labor-Market-Impacts-of-COVID-19-in-Developing-Countries http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35047 |
| Summary: | The economic crisis caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic sharply reduced mobility and economic
activity, disrupting the lives of people around the globe.
This brief presents estimates on the crisis’ impact on labor
markets in 39 countries based on high-frequency phone survey
(HFPS) data collected between April and July 2020. Workers
in these countries experienced severe labor market
disruptions following the COVID-19 outbreak. 34 percent of
respondents reported stopping work, 20 percent of wage
workers reported lack of payment for work performed, 9
percent reported job changes due to the pandemic, and 62
percent reported income loss in their household. Measures of
work stoppage and income loss in the HFPS are generally
consistent with GDP growth projections in Latin America and
the Caribbean but not in Sub-Saharan Africa, indicating that
the phone survey data contributes valuable new information
about the impacts of the crisis. Ensuring availability of
such critical data in the future will require investments
into statistical and physical infrastructure as well as
human capital to set up Emergency Observatories, which can
rapidly deploy phone surveys to inform decision makers. |
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