The disruptive impact of the COVID-19 crisis on workers, labor markets, and livelihoods has further underlined the importance of the jobs agenda.
COVID-19 has caused major disruptions in economies worldwide and specifically hit countries characterized by high levels of informality and fractured, incomplete social protection systems. These effects have so far prevented a full and balanced recovery of labor markets and will also affect a future generation of workers.
Governments have responded quickly to address the immediate jobs challenges of COVID-19, by using (i) liquidity support for firms, (ii) wage subsidies to retain jobs; and (iii) income support for the unemployed and vulnerable households. But they need to continue to address the medium and long-term effects of the pandemic by stimulating job creation, re-employment, and economic inclusion. And they’ll have to do so in a world beset by disruptive technological change and shifting patterns of demand.
There is an urgent need to strengthen health and social protection systems to provide robust universal coverage and reduce their dependence on financing through labor taxes, which creates disincentives to the growth of better jobs.
So, what have governments and international organizations done to support workers and firms to navigate the COVID-19 crisis, preserve jobs and incomes and prepare the way for a rapid recovery?
Photo: World Bank Authors: Michael Weber and David Newhouse There is now clear evidence that the devastating economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic were distributed unequally among workers in many developed countries. We recently explored how the crisis has affected different types of workers and find substantial differences. Drawing on phone survey data from about 40 developing…
Photo: World Bank Authors: Michael Weber and David Newhouse Even a year and a half after lockdowns started to go into effect, it’s difficult to get a clear picture of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Global South. Face-to-face data collection has been suspended in most of the world due to health concerns,…
Photo: World Bank Authors: Victoria Levin and Michael Weber Youth aged 15-24 make up 1.2 billion people in the world and it is projected to increase to 1.3 billion by 2030, with some countries and regions experiencing rapid growth, or so-called “youth bulges.” More than one million young people enter the labor market each month in India and in sub-Saharan Africa.…
Photo: World Bank Authors: Ivette Maria Contreras-González, Gbemisola Oseni, Amparo Palacios-Lopez, Janneke Pieters and Michael Weber Labor markets continue to be a key transmission channel of the economic impact of COVID-19. As a result, tracking the trends in labor markets is paramount to gaining a better understanding of the economic impacts of the pandemic. Proper…
Photo: World Bank Authors: Johanne Buba, Hannah Uckat, Leonardo Iacovone, Denis Medvedev The COVID-19 pandemic took a heavy toll on the global economy, with world output falling by 3.5 percent year-on-year in 2020. Despite these large output losses, surveys from more than 60 countries conducted by the World Bank and partners between April and December 2020…
Photo Credit: Dana Smillie / World Bank Author: Federica Saliola Active labor market programs (ALMPs) have continued to expand during the COVID-19 crisis. As activity in many industries is starting to pick up again, there is a renewed interest in ALMPs, particularly on how they can be better aligned with the changing nature of work…
Photo credit: Dana Smillie / World Bank Authors: Margo Hoftijzer, Victoria Levin, and Michael Weber This blog is also available in French and Spanish. In our May 2020 blog, we predicted that TVET would particularly suffer from school closures as imparting and assessing practical skills is so central for TVET and so hard to do remotely.…
Photo credit: Paul Salazar / World Bank Authors: Michael Weber and David Newhouse Unlike the global financial crisis, both voluntary and mandated restrictions on mobility have directly affected labor markets. The scale of labor market disruption in developing countries has been massive. In its latest update, the ILO estimated a loss of 255 million…
Photo: Li Wenyong / World Bank Authors: Jana Kuhnt and Kirsten Schuettler Displaced people face many challenges when integrating into the labor market in their host communities. They are also more likely than the host population to be employed in sectors that are highly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as manufacturing, accommodation, and food services. And …
Photo credit: World Bank / Ousmane Traore Authors: Girum Abebe and Christina Wieser To understand how the COVID-19 pandemic affects businesses in Ethiopia, the World Bank, in collaboration with the Job Creation Commission (JCC), has implemented a high-frequency phone survey of firms in the capital city of Addis Ababa. Using results from the phone…
