Parents in a Pandemic Labor Market

Abstract

Gender gaps in labor market outcomes during the pandemic are largely due to differences across parents: Employment and labor force participation fell much less for fathers as compared to women and non-parent men at the onset of the pandemic; the recovery has been more pronounced for men and women without children, and; the labor force participation rate of mothers has resumed declining following the start of the school year. The latter is partially offset in states with limited school re-openings. Evidence suggests flexibility in setting work schedules offsets some of the adverse impact of the pandemic on mothers’ employment, while the ability to work from home does not.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the employment situation and financial well-being of families with children in Austria: Evidence from the first ten months of the crisis

“…Some have argued that the COVID-19 crisis led to a re-traditionalisation of gendered employment and that mothers in particular faced a greater risk of job loss or hours reductions compared to men and childless women (e.g., Hipp & Bünning 2021;Hanzl & Rehm 2021, but Knize et al 2021. Evidence for the United States (Lofton et al 2021;Landivar et al 2020) shows that in this crisis mothers' employment has declined more steeply than fathers' while the recovery of jobs has been faster for men and childless women than for mothers. Similar 9…”

“…While to date we lack knowledge about the extent to which different types of households have been affected by crisis-related income losses in Austria, research from the United Kingdom pertaining to the beginning of the crisis suggest that negative labour market and income shocks were more common among working parents than among workers without children (Cheng et al 2021; see also Lofton et al 2021 for the United States) and most common among low educated parents . In line with such observations there is evidence for the UK that in April/May 2020 parents tended to be more distressed financially and more pessimistic about their financial future than the childless (Cheng et al 2021), whereas no such differences by parental status were discernible before the crisis.…”

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 ].…”

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the employment situation and financial well-being of families with children in Austria: Evidence from the first ten months of the crisis

“…To date, we lack data in Austria on how the crisis has affected the employment of fathers and mothers. Evidence from the United States (Lofton et al, 2021;Landivar et al, 2020) shows that at the start of the pandemic fathers saw their employment fall less than women and childless men and the recovery of jobs has been more pronounced for men and childless women than for mothers. Similar results have been reported for the UK (Andrew et al, 2020) and Canada (Fuller & Qian, 2021).…”

“…While to date we lack knowledge about the extent to which different types of households have been affected by crisis-related income losses in Austria, results from the United Kingdom that pertain to the beginning of the crisis suggest that negative labour market and income shocks were more common among working parents than among workers without children (Cheng et al 2021; see also Lofton et al 2021 for the United States) and most common among low educated parents (Hupkau et al, 2020). In line with such observations there is evidence for the UK that in April/May 2020 parents tended to be financially more insecure and distressed than the childless and more pessimistic about their financial future (Cheng et al, 2021), whereas no such differences by parental status were discernible before the crisis.…”