Publication: The Early Labor Market Impacts of COVID-19 in Developing Countries: Evidence from High-Frequency Phone Surveys
Date
2021-01
ISSN
Published
2021-01
Author(s)
Khamis, Melanie
Prinz, Daniel
Newhouse, David
Palacios-Lopez, Amparo
Pape, Utz
Weber, Michael
Abstract
The economic crisis caused by the
Coronavirus (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 thirty-nine 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 Coronavirus
(COVID-19) outbreak. Thirty-four percent of respondents
reported stopping work, twenty percent of wage workers
reported lack of payment for work performed, nine percent
reported job changes due to the pandemic, and sixty-two
percent reported income loss in their household. Measures of
work stoppage and income loss in the HFPS are generally
consistent with gross domestic products (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.
Citation
“Khamis, Melanie; Prinz, Daniel; Newhouse, David; Palacios-Lopez, Amparo; Pape, Utz; Weber, Michael. 2021. The Early Labor Market Impacts of COVID-19 in Developing Countries : Evidence from High-Frequency Phone Surveys. Jobs Working Paper;No. 58. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/35044 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”