IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ldr/wpaper/284.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The role of employment history and age during COVID-19: Understanding 2020 South African employment dynamics in historical context

Author

Listed:
  • Gabriel Espi-Sanchis

    (SALDRU, School of Economics, University of Cape Town)

  • Murray Leibbrandt

    (NRF Chair, Poverty and Inequality Research, SALDRU, School of Economics, University of Cape Town)

  • Vimal Ranchhod

    (SALDRU, School of Economics, University of Cape Town)

Abstract

In this paper we seek to understand how the employment of different age groups in 2020 was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa, along with the correlation between individuals’ outcomes and their employment history. First, cross-sectional employment outcomes by age (and education) are presented for four 2020 months (February, April, June and October, as measured in NIDS-CRAM). Thereafter, employment dynamics over the year are described and contrasted with employment dynamics from five pre-COVID years (2010-2014, as measured in panels based on the QLFS). We find that several aspects of the churning observed in 2020 far exceed transitions from these benchmark years, with a greater proportion of those without employment at the beginning of the year finding work by the end of the year and much higher job attainment among youth. Finally, we analyse employment outcomes during 2020 according to individuals’ employment history between 2012 and 2017 (as captured in NIDS waves 3 to 5). We find that employment history correlated strongly with 2020 employment outcomes: individuals with stronger employment histories were more likely to remain stably employed, or, among the non-employed, to find work. This shows the importance of historical context in understanding the employment effects of COVID-19.

Suggested Citation

  • Gabriel Espi-Sanchis & Murray Leibbrandt & Vimal Ranchhod, 2021. "The role of employment history and age during COVID-19: Understanding 2020 South African employment dynamics in historical context," SALDRU Working Papers 284, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    • Handle: RePEc:ldr:wpaper:284
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.opensaldru.uct.ac.za/handle/11090/1012
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ldr:wpaper:284. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Alison Siljeur (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sauctza.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.