Labour Supply in the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Empirical Evidence on Hours, Home Office, and Expectations

Abstract

Using a survey module administered in late March 2020, we analyze how working hours change under the social distancing regulations enacted to fight the CoViD-19 pandemic. We study the Netherlands, which are a prototypical Western European country, both in terms of its welfare system and its response to the pandemic. We show that total hours decline and more so for the self-employed and those with lower educational degrees. The education gradient appears because workers with a tertiary degree work a much higher number of hours from home. The strength of this effect is dampened by the government defining some workers to be essential for the working of the economy. Across sectors, we show that there are two clusters: One dominated by office-type occupations with high shares of academics, home-office hours, and low fractions of essential workers; and one where manual tasks and social interactions are prevalent with low shares of academics, home office hours, and often high shares of essential workers. Short-term expectations show that workers expect current patterns to prevail and that they expect a lot from government support schemes. In particular, many workers expect to keep their jobs in early June due to government support and the expected unemployment response is far lower than in the U.

Has the COVID‐19 pandemic changed gender‐ and parental‐status‐specific differences in working from home? Panel evidence from Germany

“…Second, this is one of the first studies to investigate whether the COVID‐19 pandemic has changed gender‐specific patterns of the use of remote work. By examining not only gender‐specific use of remote work but also the hours worked from home and the reasons for not working from home, the findings of our study extend the insights from previous research that investigated the share of jobs that can be performed from home (Arntz et al., 2020 ; Brynjolfsson et al., 2020 ; von Gaudecker et al., 2020 ; Moehring, Reifenscheid, & Weiland, 2021 ), the increase in the use of remote work during the pandemic (Alipour et al., 2021 ; Brynjolfsson et al., 2020 ; von Gaudecker et al., 2020 ), and its consequences for the gendered division of labor (Zoch et al., 2021 ). By examining both changes in the use and reasons for the non‐use of remote work, our study assesses (a) differences in the use of this arrangement before and during the pandemic among mothers, fathers, childless men, and childless women; and (b) whether these differences align with changes in perceived cultural barriers to and changing desires for remote work.…”

“…The COVID‐19 pandemic has led to a large increase in remote working to avoid infection risks at work sites and during commutes (Arntz et al., 2020 ; Brynjolfsson et al., 2020 ; von Gaudecker et al., 2020 ). As organizations suddenly had to give large proportions of their employees in different ranks and jobs the possibility of working from home, this may have altered the views of both employers and employees on the advantages and disadvantages of remote working.…”

The significance of occupations, family responsibilities, and gender for working from home: Lessons from COVID-19

“…Although it is estimated that the contemporary German labor market offers the potential for almost 40% of all workers to work from home, prior to the pandemic only 12% did so, at least partially [ 5 ]. The current pandemic has witnessed a dramatic increase in working from home [ 4 , 26 , 27 ]. As a precaution to prevent the further spread of the virus by reducing social contacts, the government imposed lockdowns—including the closure of non-essential businesses—and urged employers and employees to perform work from home where feasible.…”

Women Workforce in Construction during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Strategies

“…In the construction industry, for example, site-based employees work longer, more irregular hours than office-based employees (Lingard and Francis 2004). Thus, in the context of the present study, change in work location due to the pandemic (i.e., WFH and working partly in normal workplace and partly from home) is greatly associated with the respondents' hours worked (von Gaudecker et al 2020). Indeed, Lingard and Francis (2004) found that construction employees' work-life experiences appear to be more closely related to the nature of employees' job conditions, as indicated by work location and number of working hours.…”