• BLOG SURF
KATHMANDU, JUNE 29
The past year has been one of the toughest in recent history, due to the harsh health, economic, and social impacts of the COVID-19 crisis.
The impacts have been felt everywhere, with no country spared. Yet, they have not been felt the same way by everyone.
Women, young and less-educated workers – groups that were likely at a disadvantage in the labour market even before the shock – were more likely to lose their job in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic.
This is the main finding of our recent study using data collected at the onset of the crisis in 34 mostly low and middle-income countries around the world, which account for a combined population of almost 1.4 billion.
Relative to men, women were 11 percentage points more likely to have lost their job; a similar gap was found between tertiary-educated workers and those with primary education or less.
Young and older workers also bore the brunt of the pandemic's jobs impact, compared to primeage workers.
A version of this article appears in the print on June 30 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
