![]() ![]() 21 Also, lack of available childcare has had a disproportionate effect on working mothers around the world, many of whom dropped out of the labor force during the pandemic. 20 Those who live with high-risk populations or with those who are unable to get vaccinated, such as children, have been acutely affected. A survey of Americans showed that slightly more than 3 million people were unemployed due to fear of catching COVID-19 in June. Holding wages constant, this means workers will be more attracted to lower-risk jobs, particularly those that can be done remotely.įor others, the risk of disease is keeping them from reentering the workforce. That risk raises the reservation wage, the minimum amount of compensation a worker requires to accept a job. 19 Missing work due to COVID-19, required by law or not, likely means lost wages. 18 Additionally, coming into contact with a COVID-19–positive person may require self-isolation, which was the law in the United Kingdom until mid-August 2021. For instance, the pay rates of food service workers might go up, considering cooks experienced a 60% increase in excess mortality in 2020 relative to nonpandemic times. ![]() The heightened risk of contracting COVID-19 has made certain jobs riskier than others-and employers of such jobs will find it more challenging to attract workers at prepandemic pay rates. ![]() Ongoing contagion risk makes certain jobs less attractive 17 Strong demand for workers across numerous industries is putting those industries in competition with each other as potential job candidates rethink their careers amid innumerable job openings. For example, US job openings in manufacturing have more than doubled from prepandemic levels 15 UK job vacancies in manufacturing are 30% above their prepandemic peak 16 and Canadian professional, scientific, and technical services have surged 33.4%. However, thanks in part to substantial government stimulus, this rise in demand has not come at the expense of the goods producers 13 and technical service providers 14 who performed relatively well over the last year or more. ![]() Now that the economy has more fully reopened, demand for in-person services, such as hospitality, is on the rise. Although we do not yet know what share have switched industries, a survey in January showed that two-thirds of the unemployed were “seriously considering changing their occupation or field of work” and a third had already started reskilling to do so. In the United States, at least 1.7 million leisure and hospitality workers who lost their jobs since Q4 2019 either found work in a different sector or left the labor force entirely, 11 making it much more difficult for employers to find candidates with the requisite experience. The unemployed clamored for jobs in the few industries that were actively hiring, switching occupations and industries to do so. 10 An uneven reopening of the economy and changes in consumer preferences have contributed to the difficulty employers are experiencing while trying to find qualified candidates.ĭuring the pandemic, essential and remote work continued, while jobs that required in-person interaction largely disappeared. 9 A survey in March showed that a staggering 20% of workers switched jobs during the pandemic. The pandemic was hugely disruptive to the labor market, particularly in the United States where the unemployment rate skyrocketed to 14.8% in April 2020 before coming down to a still-elevated 5.9% in June 2021. ![]()
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