The Impact of COVID-19 on the Gender Employment Gap

Abstract: Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment has increased significantly, resulting in employees losing their job both temporarily and permanently. As the pandemic is recent, there is a need for more research regarding what impact COVID-19 has on the gender employment gap and if any gender has been more affected than the other. Further, there is scant evidence on if there is any relationship between exposure to viruses due to profession and job loss due to COVID-19. We investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the gender gap in employment at the onset of the pandemic by using data from a Six-Country Survey. We extend the study by observing the impact of COVID-19 throughout 2020 in the United States of America by using data from the Current Population Survey (CPS). Depending on data set and specification, we find that women are between 7 to 16 percent more likely to lose their job due to COVID-19 than men. However, the immediate impact differs significantly across countries. For the US, we find that women are especially more likely to lose their jobs between May to August in 2020. Interestingly, our results indicate that the gender employment gap is not driven by women working in professions with high exposure but rather exacerbates the gap.