The Role of Personal Characteristics in Shaping Gender-Biased Job Losses during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of South Africa

Lumengo Bonga-Bonga, Thabiso Molemohi and Frederich Kirsten
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Thabiso Molemohi: School of Economics, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg 2092, South Africa
Frederich Kirsten: School of Economics, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg 2092, South Africa

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 8, 1-14

Abstract: This paper contributes to the literature on the effects of adverse economic conditions on gender differences in the labour market by assessing how COVID-19, a global trigger for a critical adverse condition, impacted gender differences in the labour market in a country with pronounced discrimination and inequality in the labour market. In fact, the paper investigates how the personal characteristics of women and men affected their likelihood of losing jobs during and before COVID-19 in South Africa. Using the database of the National Income Dynamics Study-Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM) and NIDS wave 5 dataset and based on logit regression, the paper finds that personal characteristics such as tertiary education had a negative effect on job losses among females. Moreover, the results show that, compared to male workers, female workers were the most affected by the pandemic due to the lockdown regulation that affected many households’ behaviour.

Keywords: COVID-19; gender inequality; South Africa; labour market; unemployment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Working Paper: The role of personal characteristics in shaping gender-biased job losses during the COVID-19 pandemic: The case of South Africa (2023)
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