Social insecurity and varieties of family resilience strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeThis study is aimed at developing an understanding of the consequences of the pandemic on families' socioeconomic resilience, and the strategies adopted by the families in overcoming social vulnerabilities amid uncertainty.Design/methodology/approachThe materials for this study consist of semi-structured interviews with 21 families spread across the South Sumatra Province, Indonesia. Families in the study represent four different income levels, namely very high, high, middle and low, and who also work in the informal sector. Each family has at least 1 or more members who fall into the vulnerable category (children, the elderly, people with disabilities unemployed or having potential economic vulnerability).FindingsTwo main findings are outlined. Regardless of their socioeconomic status, many of the families analyzed adopted similar strategies to remain resilient. Among the strategies are classifying the urgency of purchasing consumer goods based on financial capacity rather than needs, leveraging digital economic opportunities as alternative sources of income, utilizing more extensive informal networks and going into debt. Another interesting finding shows that the pandemic, to some extent, has saved poor families from social insecurity. This is supported by evidence showing that social distancing measures during the pandemic have reduced the intensity of sociocultural activities, which require invited community members to contribute financially. The reduction of sociocultural activities in the community has provided more potential savings for the poor.Research limitations/implicationsIn this study, informants who provided information about their family conditions represent a major segment of the workforce and tend to be technologically savvy and younger, due to the use of Zoom as a platform for conducting interviews. Therefore, there may be a bias in the results. Another limitation is that since the interviewees were recommended by our social network in the fields, there is a risk of a distorted selection of participants.Originality/valueThis study offers insights that are critical in helping to analyze family patterns in developing countries in mitigating the risks and uncertainties caused by COVID-19. In addition, the literature on social policy and development could benefit from further research on COVID-19 as an alternative driver to identify mechanisms that could bring about change that would result in "security.” Critical questions and limitations of this study are presented at the end of the paper to be responded to as future research agenda.

"I Could Be Unemployed the Rest of the Year”: Unprecedented Times and the Challenges of "Making More”

The COVID-19 pandemic has been unprecedented in many ways, but perhaps no more so than in the sudden expansion of—and increase in—unemployment assistance benefits. We ask how precarious workers, many of whom were "hustling” for money or engaged in creative fields, feel about making more on unemployment. How are they using the funds? We draw on remote interviews and online surveys with 199 gig and precarious workers in New York City during the first wave of the pandemic. We find that workers are ambivalent about unemployment assistance and concerned that a financial influx today portends a shortage tomorrow. This "specter of the unknown” affected workers' use of their benefits. As a result, even though the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act was intended to mitigate the social and economic impact of the pandemic, these programs—despite being helpful—may have also contributed to precarious workers becoming even more certain of their insecurity.

Education Remains Critical with Unemployment, Employment, and Participation Rates in 2020 Being the Worst in Many Years for Aboriginals and Non-Aboriginals

The higher the level of education completed the higher the wage rates, the lower the rate of unemployment, and the higher the employment rates. Unemployment rates were significantly higher and participation and employment rates were significantly lower for Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals in Canada in 2020. This may be attributed to the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. The rate of unemployment increased more for nonAboriginals than for Aboriginals in 2020. However, participation and employment rates decreased more for Aboriginals than for non-Aboriginals. Employment, unemployment, and participation rates are and historically have been more favourable for non-Aboriginals than for Aboriginals. As educational levels increase, employment measures and wage rates improve. Employment measures are examined by gender, age, province, and education, and for Métis, Inuit, and First Nations.

Disparities in Access to Unemployment Insurance During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons from U.S. and California Claims Data

To what extent did jobless Americans benefit from unemployment insurance (UI) during the COVID-19 pandemic? This article documents geographic disparities in access to UI during 2020. We leverage aggregated and individual-level claims data to perform an integrated analysis across four measures of access to UI. In addition to the traditional UI recipiency rate, we construct rates of application among the unemployed, rates of first payment among applicants, and exhaustion rates among paid claimants. Through correlations across California counties and across states, we show that areas with more disadvantaged residents had less access to UI during the pandemic. Although these disparities are large in magnitude, cross-state analysis suggests that policy can play a salient role in mitigating them.

Locked in, logged out: pandemic and ride-hailing in South Africa and Kenya

This article examines the impact of the pandemic on ride-hailing drivers and their mitigation strategies during lockdown in Africa. Ride-hailing has emerged as one of the latest paid-work opportunities for the continent's many unemployed. Yet, ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Bolt misclassify drivers to avoid regulation and responsibilities towards workers' welfare. Drawing on 34 in-depth interviews with ride-hailing drivers, driver representatives and trade unions in South Africa and Kenya, this article makes two arguments. First, the gig economy in Africa provides work opportunities for the unemployed on the continent and simultaneously vitiates the working conditions through the commodification and informalisation of work. Second, the state-directed emergency measures act as a veneer to capital's efforts to commodify labour and the gig economy platforms have emerged as primary tools for it. Our account points to an urgent need for better regulatory systems to hold platform companies accountable and a collective bargaining mechanism in the gig economy.

Women Suffering from Multiple Sources of Oppression in Upper Egypt: A Case Study of Intersectional Targeting and Integrated Development Interventions as the Way Out

Scholars in the field of gender and development are strong advocates of the concept of "intersectionality," first coined by Crenshaw in 1989, as a way of thinking about how marginalized groups may be subjected to oppression from various sources. The main purpose of this research is to make a case for how intersectional targeting, together with integrated development interventions, can be useful in helping vulnerable individuals, specifically women, suffering from multiple sources of poverty and oppression. A case study, coupled with in-depth field interviews, was the method employed for assessing the application of an intersectional lens by a nonprofit development organization (ENID) that targets vulnerable poor, illiterate, and unemployed women living in marginalized rural communities in South Egypt and employs integrated development interventions to get them out of poverty. Working on upgrading basic services, promoting small and micro enterprises, fostering sustainable agricultural development, initiating a program for knowledge dissemination and policy advocacy were some of the features of the integrated development approach utilized by ENID. The research findings indicated that ENID activities may have had a positive impact on reducing poverty and empowering women in the rural villages of South Egypt. Many challenges were faced related to government bureaucracy, restrictive cultural norms, and the COVID-19 pandemic. However, on the positive side, poverty was reported to have declined by 14.5% in absolute terms from 2015-2018 in Qena governorate where ENID works. More investments are being directed to the region, and the women beneficiaries attest to lifechanging experiences, enhanced self-confidence, and empowerment.

Rewriting the hills: Youth sociality as a mode of navigating unemployment in a context of outmigration in North India

This article examines the ways in which educated yet unemployed young people attempt to configure ways of being productive in a small hill town in North India. Young people who do not migrate to large urban centres from this township are the subject of contradictory discourses: in some moments they are seen as an antidote to the ‘problem of migration', but in other moments they are ridiculed for not making good use of their time. Both discourses suggest a present wherein young people are not productive. Drawing on ethnographic material gathered over a ten-month period, this article frames youth sociality as a mode registering a sense of productivity and navigating unemployment. I argue that while hanging out at a computer shop, young men were distancing themselves from notions of idling and creating masculine youth cultures in which they sought to situate themselves as productive young people. I make this argument by unpacking exchanges between these young men and by analysing the tangible ways they helped the shop function. I also draw debates about youth sociality into dialogue with theoretical insights from rural geography to illuminate how educated youth attempt to imbue rural and peri-urban space with new possibilities. I show how educated youth attempt to reanimate rural space and forge affirmative rural futures by emphasizing their connections with Indian modernity. Attending to the ways in which educated yet unemployed youth attempt to situate themselves within productive relations is set to become of increasing importance given the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Determinants of Food Insecurity During COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria: A Random Effects Ordered Probit Approach

COVID-19 is reversing the global development progresses already attained over the past few decades. Attainment of zero hunger in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is being threatened and comprehensive approach in managing the pandemic is required. This paper analyzed the determinants of food insecurity status during COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria. The data were the second, fourth and seventh rounds of COVID-19 National Longitudinal Phone Survey (NLPS) that were carried out in June, August and November 2020 respectively. Food insecurity status was computed with questions on Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) and analyzed with Random Effects Ordered Probit Regression. The results showed that food security improved from 12.19% in June to 24.65% in November. There was a decline in the percentage of severely food insecure households in urban areas from 54.67% in June to 44.53% in November while that in rural areas declined from 60.69% in June to 45.34% in November. The Panel Probit regression showed presence of significant heterogeneity across the panels. Also, age, household size, male, tertiary education, North West residence, public administrator, business or traders and construction job showed statistical significance (p<0.05) with negative sign, while social assistance (p<0.05) has positive sign. Nonperception of COVID-19 risk based on morbidity tendency and financial impacts significantly reduced food insecurity (p<0.01). It was concluded that interventions to address COVID-19 pandemic must critically evaluate their welfare impacts given absence of effective social assistance and must take cognizance of households' vulnerability to hunger with focus on female headed households, illiterates, unemployed and youths.

The Socio-Economic Effects of the COVID-19 National Lockdown on South Africa and its Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a global public health emergency. In the absence of approved and effective prophylactics and therapeutics, almost all countries have resorted to some version of national lockdown coupled with social distancing and enhanced hygiene measures to curb the spread of the pandemic. The COVID-19 has infected almost fifty million people globally, with more than a million deaths so far. Although national lockdowns have been employed as the primary response to the COVID-19 pandemic, they have also resulted in untold economic devastation to South Africa. Millions of people in the informal sector have been impoverished due to the COVID-19-induced lockdown. More people have become unemployed, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of almost all the nations have significantly contracted and public debt has rapidly increased while South Africa's national budget has been severely strained. This article examines the socio-economic effects of the COVID-19-induced lockdown on South Africa and its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Reference will be made to Tanzania and Sweden which have shunned lockdowns. This is done for comparative purposes and to inform policy reform.

Digitale Kompetenzen in Deutschland

Based on the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), the study provides an overview of the distribution of digital literacy in Germany up to the beginning of the Covid pandemic. Already in childhood and adolescence, there are systematic differences in digital literacy depending on socio-economic background. Children with a migration background and those with unemployed parents show particularly low digital literacy. Gender-specific differences in digital literacy are small in childhood and adolescence, but clearly pronounced among adults. In addition, people with little formal education and people with a migration background have systematically lower digital competences in adulthood. The education sector should therefore promote the digital competences of children and young people at an early stage in order to compensate for the apparently low level of competence development outside the formal education sector. Educational opportunities for digitally less competent adults should also be strengthened to enable older generations to continue to participate in the changing spheres of life, education, and work.

Well-being costs of perceived job insecurity: Mediating role of financial satisfaction, subjective healthiness and institutional trust

The fear of losing the current job or not finding a new job significantly affects an individual’s well-being. However, perceived job insecurity also affects an individual’s financial satisfaction, subjective healthiness, and trust in institutions - determinants of subjective well-being. This research explores the direct and indirect effects of perceived job insecurity on the life satisfaction of the full-time employed and unemployed people within a serial mediation analysis framework. Using the World Values Survey (6th wave) dataset, we estimated the effects in aggregate and disaggregated (by the income level of countries) samples. Regarding unemployed people, results display the almost equal contribution of direct and indirect channels. In contrast, the dominance of indirect impact channels is more considerable in the case of individuals employed full-time. In disaggregated samples, no significant impact is detected in low-income and upper-middle-income class members, while the effects are significant and economically meaningful for lower-middle-income and high-income countries. Non-pecuniary costs exceed pecuniary costs. The primary mediating factor is satisfaction with a household’s financial situation, especially in high-income countries. The availability of unemployment insurance benefits can partially compensate well-being costs of perceived job insecurity. Nevertheless, governments need to enhance labour market efficiency to diminish both unemployed and full-time employed individuals’ perceived job insecurity, which would improve societal welfare in the end.

Teaching Job Search Skills to College Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities through Screensharing and Remote Audio Coaching

Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are more frequently unemployed or under-employed than individuals without disabilities. Job search skills are one of the most direct ways to counter unemployment. Remote audio coaching (RAC) has shown to be an effective, remote method for teaching skills to adults with IDD. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the need for flexible intervention delivery options, we explored the effectiveness of using RAC to teach job search skills to college students with IDD. A multiple probe design across students was used to examine the impact of RAC on increasing job search skills. Results demonstrated that RAC was effective at increasing this skill. All students maintained the skill upon removai of the intervention. Implications and future research are discussed.

THE BRIGHT SIDE OF THE COVID WAR

Przedmiot badań: Efekty pandemii COVID-19 są porównywalne do średnich rozmiarów wojny światowej z dwoma milionami ofiar i milionami bezrobotnych. Szok pandemii nieuchronnie prowadzi do radykalnych rozwiązań w zakresie biotechnologii, która odnotowała ogromne postępy w ciągu 6-8 miesięcy zamiast 5 lat. W ciągu ostatnich 20 lat, pomimo spektakularnych innowacji, kraje wysoko rozwinięte nie zmieniły zasadniczo sposobów produkcji i świadczenia usług, a zamiast tego stworzyły niezwykle bogate międzynarodowe monopole. Cel badawczy: Głównym celem badawczym jest wyciągnięcie wniosków z pandemii Covid-19 w zakresie jej wpływu na gospodarkę światową. Analizujemy różne, raczej pozytywne aspekty postpandemicznej rzeczywistości, zwłaszcza w odniesieniu do przyspieszonego postępu technicznego i innowacji powodowanych przez kryzys społeczno-gospodarczy, bezrobocie i ogromne straty istnień ludzkich w trakcie pandemii. Metoda badawcza: Zastosowano metodę syntezy wielu wiarygodnych źródeł statystycznych. Dokonano interdyscyplinarnej analizy z punktu widzenia makroekonomii, nauk politycznych i socjologii. Wyniki: Dzisiaj stagnacja w zakresie wzrostu wydajności lat 2000. powoli dobiega końca. Jesteśmy świadkami narodzin wielkich wynalazków w dziedzinie zwalczania chorób, "produkcji" mięsa, taksówek bez kierowcy, algorytmów sztucznej inteligencji (AI), drastycznych spadków cen wytwarzania odnawialnej energii. Innymi słowy, w czasie mrocznych dni pandemii Covid-19 na horyzoncie widzimy wielkie odkrycia prowadzące do szybkiego społecznego i gospodarczego rozwoju. Stagnacja wydajności pracy w latach 2000. zbliża się do końca. Pfizer i Moderna opracowały szczepionki przeciw Covid-19 w ciągu kilku miesięcy zamiast wielu lat.Alternate :Background: The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are comparable to a medium-size war with 2 million victims and hundreds of millions of people unemployed. The shock of the pandemic has inevitably led to radical solutions, e.g., biotechnology advances occurred in 6-8 months instead of 5 years or more. During the last 20 years, in spite of spectacular innovations, developed countries did not really change how they offer services and produce goods;rather, they created extremely rich multinational monopolies. Research purpose: The main purpose is to look at the post-Covid-19 world economy. We discuss rather positively different aspects of the post-pandemic reality, especially the accelerated technological progress and innovations pushed by the social and economic crisis, unemployment, and the huge losses of human lives during the pandemic. Pfizer and Moderna have developed a Covid-19 vaccine in months instead of years. Methods: An academic synthesis of the multitude of reliable data sources. A multidisciplinary overview from the point of view of macroeconomics, political science, and sociology. Conclusions: We are witnessing the birth of great innovations to treat diseases and to "grow" meat. There are driverless taxis, the best AI natural language algorithm to date, and a significant drop in the prices of renewable energy. In other words, in the dark days of Covid-19, we can see on the horizon a new era of great discoveries leading to faster economic and social development.

Repensar la restricción externa en tiempos de pandemia: la política de empleador de última instancia para Latinoamérica

El objetivo de este artículo es dar a conocer la estrategia de desarrollo de la peri­feria, proponiendo un cambio de perspectiva: en lugar de buscar conseguir divisas para crecer y, con ello, generar empleo, se defiende un estabilizador automático, basado en una reserva de empleados, lo que llamamos política de empleador de última instancia, como eje para una estrategia de desarrollo, estable y autónoma. Si bien la periferia puede ver limitada su capacidad de importar, argumentamos que los gobiernos eligen entre el pleno empleo y el desempleo. Los efectos económicos de la pandemia de COVID-19 obligan a examinar esta elección. Alternate : The aim of this paper is to rethink the development strategy of the periphery pro­posing a change of perspective: instead of seeking to obtain foreign trade to grow and, thus, generate employment, an automatic stabiliser based on a reserve of employees is endorsed, what we call the employer of last resort policy, as the axis for a stable and autonomous development strategy. While the periphery may have limited import capacity, governments choose between full employment and unem­ployment. Until now, the idea has prevailed that maintaining a part of the popula­tion unemployed is, for some strange reason, preferable.

Development of Youth Capabilities through the National Youth Service Programme

The National Youth Service Programme is a South Africa government youth development intervention that aims at inculcating moral values in the youth by instilling the culture of patriotism through volunteerism. This paper aimed at investigating the extent to which the National Youth Service Programme (NYSP) contributes to the development of young people in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. A qualitative research approach was used to understand the participants lived experience. Semi-structured interview was used to gather data. The target group was 10 youths who were part of the National Youth Service Programme in the Western Cape. The researchers used purposive sampling, phenomenological as the research design. The finding of this study highlighted that the NYSP positively contributes to the entrepreneurship mindset, character building, community uplifting, leadership skills, poverty eradication, and attainment of vocational skills among young people. The study affirms that the level of poverty among young people was reduced through the National Youth Service Programme. The study recommends that the National Youth Development Agency should ensure that 90% of the budget allocated for the Presidential Youth Service Programme in post COVID-19 South Africa goes to the unemployed youth. The NYDA should have a monitoring and evaluation system in place to assess the impact of the programme on positive youth development.