Measuring the Impact of COVID-19 in the MENA Region: Labor Market, Firms and Households

FromJul 05, 2022 To Jul 06, 2022

Online Webinar

The impact of the pandemic on jobs and enterprises in the MENA region

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought permanent changes to world economies. It has presented enormous challenges for governments, businesses, workers, and households. Lockdown policies and government efforts to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on lives and livelihoods, as well as the economic impact, have shaped the evolution of the labor market. Millions of workers have been exposed to income losses and layoffs, and the impact has been particularly severe for unprotected workers and the most vulnerable groups in the informal economy, which constitutes a considerable share of economic activity and employment in MENA. In addition, women are among the most affected groups, as they are overrepresented in sectors most exposed to contagion (health and education), and bear a disproportionate burden in care work, with the closure of schools and kindergartens.

To study the impact of the pandemic on employment, small businesses and households, the ERF and the ILO have put in place the COVID-19 MENA Monitor – a series of nationally representative panel phone surveys in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, and Sudan . Five waves of the survey have been conducted across countries in 2020 and 2021, to track the impact of the pandemic on labor markets. A firm survey targeting private small and medium enterprises (SMEs) also collected data on firms’ activity and responses to the pandemic.

The data collected during the period in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, representing 22,139 household observations and 3,978 firm observations, has allowed ERF and ILO to publish summary briefs, presenting for each country and for each wave, the survey findings on key labor market indicators, business activity, and household incomes and coping strategies.

With all the survey waves completed for the five countries covered, ERF and ILO have teamed up to examine labor markets, firms, and households during the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 and 2021, through five analytical research papers focusing on: (1) digital transformation of enterprises in the MENA region; (2) job losses, poverty and food security; (3) the gendered impact of the pandemic on employment and care work; (4) the impact on labor markets; and (5) the impact on formal and informal enterprises. Three country case studies were also produced for Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco. These contributions are unique for the region in being based on a wealth of direct observations throughout the pandemic and represent important information to allow policy makers devise their recovery strategies.

The long-term challenges to jobs and growth in the MENA region

Pursuing an initiative launched prior to the pandemic, the event will also present the second regional report on Jobs and Growth in the North Africa. The report builds on an extensive effort to collect and harmonize labor market data from and with national statistical offices. In a collaboration between labor economists and macroeconomists, the report further integrates key output growth and macroeconomic indicators, sectoral and structural change dynamics of the region, i.e. the quality of growth, and its nexus with the quantity of jobs created and the quality of these jobs. The second regional report provides an update to the first report with data for the period 2018 to 2021. The analysis is focused on the policy response to the pandemic in North African countries, and the recovery outlook. Complementing official statistics with the additional data collected in the Monitor series, the report sheds light on jobs and income losses during the pandemic and the pace of their recovery, shifts to online and remote work, and access to social assistance programs over the course of the pandemic.

Webinar objectives and setting

The webinar is organized by the Economic Research Forum (ERF) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). It aims to disseminate the key findings of the 5 research papers on the impact of COVID-19 in selected MENA countries and to open a dialogue between researchers and stakeholders to inform the policy debate on the implications of the shock and associated coping mechanisms.

At a country level, the webinar will also zoom in on the impact of COVID-19 on 3 countries; Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt. Additionally, it will also focus on understanding the relationship between jobs and growth in Morocco during the period 2000-2021 and present the preliminary findings of the second report on jobs and growth in North Africa during the COVID-19 era, to generate feedback and improve the final report.

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