Erwerbstätigkeit, Arbeitszeit und Arbeitsvolumen von Frauen und Männern: Entwicklungen seit der Covid-19-Pandemie

"This research report presents updated results of the IAB Working Time Measurement Concept by Age Groups and Gender (AZR AG). This concept breaks down the macroeconomic results on forms of employment, working time and volume of work for women and men of different age groups using suitable reference statistics. On this basis, it is possible to trace, in particular, the crisis-related changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic concerning the development of employment as well as the hours worked by women and men up to the year 2022. The pandemic and the measures taken in this context had a significant negative impact on the labour market and the economy in Germany. The adjustment to the economic slump took place mainly through short-time work and other reductions in working hours. Thus, the volume of work, measured in employed persons' hours, fell by just under 4.9 per cent on average in 2020 compared to the previous year, and the hours worked per employed person fell by just under 4.2 per cent. The number of people in employment, on the other hand, has only decreased by 0.8 percent. This means that 5/6 of the decline in the volume of work was caused by the reduction in working hours per person in employment and 1/6 by the decline in employment. Overall, most of the findings published so far on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the work situation of women and men point in a similar direction: women were particularly affected by the pandemic and its management. When it comes to the controversy of whether there was a temporary or possibly even persistent retraditionalisation of gender roles, the AZR AG results for hours worked in the period 2019 to 2022 show a mixed picture. In 2020, men's employment fell slightly more than women's (men -0.9%; women -0.7%). In the following years, employment increased again for both women and men, and it exceeded the prepandemic level again in 2022. However, the increases were significantly higher for men in the annual comparison 2022/2019 (men +1.2 %, women +0.2 %).The relative declines in annual working hours in the first year of the pandemic were more pronounced for women in terms of percentage (men -4.0%, women -4.4%). Even though working hours recovered somewhat from the slumps in the following year 2021, to a greater extent for women than for men, the massive slumps in working hours could not yet be recovered by 2022. Compared to before the Corona crisis, the percentage gap in annual working hours was higher for men (men -2.4%; women -1.4%). The decisive factor for this was the development of the internal structure, i.e. the ratio of fulltime and part-time employment. While the part-time rate increased among men, it decreased among women. This opposite development led to a lower working time deficit for women despite higher percentage reductions in working time for full-time, regular part-time and parttime jobs - because the part-time effect compensated for a large part of it. In contrast, the parttime effect increased the working time decreases for men. These developments in employment and working hours add up to the volume of work done. In the first year of the Corona pandemic, the volume of work for women fell by 5.0 per cent and for men by 4.9 per cent. In percentage terms, the decline was therefore somewhat greater for women. Despite the different developments in employment and annual working hours, the increases in the volume of work in 2021 were the same for men and women (+2.6%); in 2022 they were slightly higher for women. As a result of these developments, the volume of work in 2022 was still 1.2 per cent below the pre-Corona level for both women and men. Overall, it can be seen that the gender-specific differences in employment and working hours have increased to some extent. For example, the proportion of women in employment decreased and in the individual forms of employment, women had higher decreases in working hours than men. However, the high part-time rate of women continues to lead to a pronounced discrepancy in the hours worked by men and women, even though a trend towards more part-time work was noticeable among men." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))