COVID-19: The Labor Market and Gender Differentials
The Coronavirus-19 pandemic and the coping measures adopted to contain the virus significantly affected the Brazilian economy and its labor market. The worsening of employment indicators mainly affected the most vulnerable demographic groups, highlighting and expanding various dimensions of existing inequalities. This study aimed to evaluate the differences in performance between men and women in the Brazilian labor market, both from the point of view of job loss and hours worked, using quarterly microdata from PNAD-Contínua. The estimated models suggest that the adjustment in the intensive margin was greater for women, with a widening of the gender gap in hours worked by about 2 hours per week, on average. Among single-parent families with young children, the increase in the gender gap reached 3.5 hours. The estimated probability of women's job loss proved to be higher throughout the analysis period, with some worsening of the gap between the second and third quarter of 2020. By including controls for the occupation sector, the increase in the gender gap in loss of employment and hours worked was attenuated, reinforcing the hypothesis that the relative deterioration of female employment would be associated with its greater representation in the sectors most vulnerable to the pandemic shock in the labor market.