Did Covid-19 disproportionately affect mothers’ labor market activity?

Abstract

School and day care center restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic have presented enormous challenges to parents trying to juggle work with child-care responsibilities. Still, empirical evidence on the impact of pandemic-related child-care constraints on the labor market outcomes of working parents is somewhat mixed. Some studies suggest the pandemic had no additional impact on the labor supply of parents, while other studies show not only that it did but that the negative impact was disproportionately borne by working mothers. 1 In this Chicago Fed Letter, we describe estimates of the impact of the pandemic on prime-age (25 to 54) parents' labor market activity through the fall of 2020, with a particular emphasis on mothers. We show that the labor force participation (LFP) of mothers, i.e., the share of working-age mothers employed or seeking employment, declined by an additional 0.6 percentage points in the spring and 0.3 percentage points in the fall, above and beyond the negative toll that the pandemic had on labor market attachment of prime-age adults without kids. The impact translates to roughly 120,000 and 60,000 fewer prime-age mothers in the labor force in the spring and fall, respectively. This estimate is more than fully driven by a decline in employment. Indeed, we estimate roughly 200,000 fewer prime-age mothers were employed throughout the pandemic. The largest impact has been on Black, single, and non-college-educated mothers, mirroring widening employment disparities in the broader labor market since March.

Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Accelerated the Future of Work or Changed Its Course? Implications for Research and Practice

“…The implementation of remote learning from home during standard business hours means that working parents have had to manage both work and family roles simultaneously—or make new provisions for childcare. According to two independent studies, mothers were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic in terms of unemployment, labor force participation, and a slower recovery than other non-parent adults [ 196 , 197 ]. Additionally, the number of families with at least one member unemployed increased to 8.1 million in 2020 compared to 4.1 million in 2019 [ 198 ].…”

Infected Versus Affected: Gender Disparity and the Service Industry Workforce During COVID-19

“…Although men are more likely to be infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus with higher morbidity and mortality, women have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic (Connor et al, 2020). This disparity is even more pronounced among Black women, single mothers, and non-collegeeducated women who are often employed in low-wage and essential service industries (Aaronson et al, 2021;Burki, 2020). COVID-19 has amplified these areas of marginalization as women experience higher rates of unemployment, representing over 50% of job loss (Ewing-Nelson, 2020;Falk et al, 2021) which in addition to financial implications have expected long-term consequences (e.g., Workforce re-entry difficulties).…”

Aumento en las cargas de cuidado por la pandemia del Covid-19 y oferta laboral de las madres en Colombia

“…Si bien este efecto puede parecer pequeño, significa que aproximadamente 46.000 madres salieron de la fuerza laboral por el incremento en las cargas de cuidado 12 . Este efecto es similar al encontrado por Aaronson et al, (2021).…”

“…Otros estudios que investigan los efectos de la falta de cuidado infantil durante la pandemia usan rangos de edad similares a los de este trabajo: menores de 14 (Aaronson et al, 2021;Hanzl & Rehm, 2021), menores de 13 años (Barkowski et al, 2020), 6 a 12 años (Amuedo-Dorantes et al, 2020), 5 a 12 años , menores de 15 años (Becerra et al, 2020).…”

“…Usualmente es utilizado para restringir la muestra en estudios laborales. Varias investigaciones de la pandemia emplean este rango de edad o algunos muy similares para hacer los análisis (Aaronson et al, 2021;Barkowski et al, 2020;Lim & Zabek, 2021;Luengo-Prado, 2021).…”