Policy Briefs

Employment and Care Work during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Persistent Inequality in the Middle East and North Africa

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No.

PB 78

Publisher

ERF

Date

June, 2022

Topic

I. Health

J2. Demand and Supply of Labor

J1. Demographic Economics

Abstract
Author(s)

In a nutshell

Although employment rates dropped during the initial lockdown phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in the second quarter of 2020, they had generally recovered by mid-2021 in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia.
Wage inequality initially rose during the pandemic, but shifted back towards pre-pandemic levels, to varying degrees, by mid-2021.
Hours of work tended to decline overall from late 2020 through mid-2021. However, this shift is likely due to informal and self-employed workers, who had lost employment initially and tend to work fewer hours, later returning to work. Within different types of work, hours recovered or were more stable.
Employment during the pandemic recovery depended on labour market status and sector pre-pandemic; public sector, followed by private formal sector workers were the most likely to stay employed, while non-wage and informal private sector wage workers were more likely to exit employment.
The closure of schools and nurseries increased care work for married women in households with young or school-aged children.
While women had lower employment rates and were more likely to exit work during the pandemic, these patterns appear to be continuations of existing trends from prior to the pandemic. Women and men experienced similar recoveries in employment rates.
Although married women with children had lower employment rates during the pandemic, this too was a continuation of pre-pandemic trends. After accounting for pre-pandemic labour market status, women with children were not more likely to exit work during the pandemic or during school closures. Married women with children had already largely selected out of types of work that were difficult to reconcile with care responsibilities.
Assessing the ongoing recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and its labour market repercussions requires detailed data not only on employment rates, but also hours of work and earnings.
The pandemic has underscored gender inequality in care work, but also offers an opportunity to rethink care responsibilities and ultimately recognize, reduce, and redistribute care work.