Inequalities in job loss and income loss in sub-Saharan Africa during the COVID-19 crisis

ABSTRACT

This paper uses high-frequency phone survey data from Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, and Uganda to analyze the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on work (including wage employment, self-employment, and farm work) and income, as well as heterogeneity by gender, family composition, education, age, pre-COVID19 industry of work, and between the rural and urban sectors. The paper links phone survey data collected throughout the pandemic to pre-COVID-19 face-to-face survey data to track the employment of respondents who were working before the pandemic and analyze individual-level indicators of job loss and re-employment. Finally, it analyzes both immediate impacts, during the first few months of the pandemic, as well as longer run impacts through February/March 2021. The findings show that in the early phase of the pandemic, women, young, and urban workers were significantly more likely to lose their jobs. A year after the onset of the pandemic, these inequalities disappeared and education became the main predictor of joblessness. The analysis finds significant rural/urban, age, and education gradients in household-level income loss. Households with income from nonfarm enterprises were the most likely to report income loss, in the short run as well as the longer run.