IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/labeco/v82y2023ics0927537123000179.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effects of stay-at-home orders on skill requirements in vacancy postings

Author

Listed:
  • Gu, Ran
  • Zhong, Ling

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and containment policies have had profound economic impacts on the labor market. Stay-at-home orders (SAHOs) implemented across most of the United States changed the way of people worked. In this paper, we quantify the effect of SAHO durations on skill demands to study how firms adjust labor demand within occupation. We use skill requirement information from the 2018 to 2021 online job vacancy posting data from Burning Glass Technologies, exploit the spatial variations in the SAHO duration, and use instrumental variables to correct for the endogeneity in the policy duration related to local social and economic factors. We find that policy durations have persistent impacts on the labor demand after restrictions are lifted. Longer SAHOs motivate management style transformation from people-oriented to operation-oriented by requiring more of operational and administrative skills and less of personality and people management skills to carry out standard workflows. SAHOs also change the focus of interpersonal skill demands from specific customer services to general communication such as social and writing skills. SAHOs more thoroughly affect occupations with partial work-from-home capacity. The evidence suggests SAHOs change management structure and communication in firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Gu, Ran & Zhong, Ling, 2023. "Effects of stay-at-home orders on skill requirements in vacancy postings," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:82:y:2023:i:c:s0927537123000179
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2023.102342
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537123000179
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.labeco.2023.102342?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric Maurin & David Thesmar, 2004. "Changes in the Functional Structure of Firms and the Demand for Skill," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 22(3), pages 639-664, July.
    2. ChaeWon Baek & Peter B. McCrory & Todd Messer & Preston Mui, 2021. "Unemployment Effects of Stay-at-Home Orders: Evidence from High-Frequency Claims Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 103(5), pages 979-993, December.
    3. Dingel, Jonathan I. & Neiman, Brent, 2020. "How many jobs can be done at home?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    4. Adams-Prassl, Abi & Boneva, Teodora & Golin, Marta & Rauh, Christopher, 2020. "Inequality in the impact of the coronavirus shock: Evidence from real time surveys," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    5. Brad Hershbein & Lisa B. Kahn, 2018. "Do Recessions Accelerate Routine-Biased Technological Change? Evidence from Vacancy Postings," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(7), pages 1737-1772, July.
    6. Hensvik, Lena & Le Barbanchon, Thomas & Rathelot, Roland, 2021. "Job search during the COVID-19 crisis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    7. Adams-Prassl, A. & Boneva, T. & Golin, M & Rauh, C., 2020. "Inequality in the Impact of the Coronavirus Shock: New Survey Evidence for the UK," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2023, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    8. Coibion, Olivier & Gorodnichenko, Yuriy & Weber, Michael, 2020. "Labor Markets During the Covid-19 Crisis: A Preliminary View," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt7rx7t91p, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    9. Ali, Umair & Herbst, Chris M. & Makridis, Christos A., 2021. "The impact of COVID-19 on the U.S. child care market: Evidence from stay-at-home orders," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    10. Carrillo-Tudela, Carlos & Clymo, Alex & Comunello, Camila & Jäckle, Annette & Visschers, Ludo & Zentler-Munro, David, 2023. "Search and reallocation in the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from the UK," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    11. David J. Deming, 2017. "The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(4), pages 1593-1640.
    12. Raj Chetty & John N. Friedman & Michael Stepner & The Opportunity Insights Team, 2020. "The Economic Impacts of COVID-19: Evidence from a New Public Database Built Using Private Sector Data," NBER Working Papers 27431, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Kien Le & My Nguyen, 2021. "The psychological consequences of COVID-19 lockdowns," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(2), pages 147-163, March.
    14. Alexander W. Bartik & Marianne Bertrand & Zoe Cullen & Edward L. Glaeser & Michael Luca & Christopher Stanton, 2020. "The impact of COVID-19 on small business outcomes and expectations," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117(30), pages 17656-17666, July.
    15. Forsythe, Eliza & Kahn, Lisa B. & Lange, Fabian & Wiczer, David, 2020. "Labor demand in the time of COVID-19: Evidence from vacancy postings and UI claims," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    16. David Deming & Lisa B. Kahn, 2018. "Skill Requirements across Firms and Labor Markets: Evidence from Job Postings for Professionals," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(S1), pages 337-369.
    17. Simon Mongey & Laura Pilossoph & Alexander Weinberg, 2021. "Which workers bear the burden of social distancing?," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(3), pages 509-526, September.
    18. Erik Brynjolfsson & John J. Horton & Adam Ozimek & Daniel Rock & Garima Sharma & Hong-Yi TuYe, 2020. "COVID-19 and Remote Work: An Early Look at US Data," NBER Working Papers 27344, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Douglas Staiger & James H. Stock, 1997. "Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(3), pages 557-586, May.
    20. Finamor, Lucas & Scott, Dana, 2021. "Labor market trends and unemployment insurance generosity during the pandemic," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    21. Lordan, Grace & Josten, Cecily, 2021. "The accelerated value of social skills in knowledge work and the COVID-19 pandemic," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113364, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    22. Tomaz Cajner & Leland D. Crane & Ryan A. Decker & John Grigsby & Adrian Hamins-Puertolas & Erik Hurst & Christopher Johann Kurz & Ahu Yildirmaz, 2020. "The U.S. Labor Market During the Beginning of the Pandemic Recession," Working Papers 2020-58_Revision, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    23. Kathryn Koenders & Richard Rogerson, 2005. "Organizational dynamics over the business cycle: a view on jobless recoveries," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 87(Jul), pages 555-580.
    24. Robert E. Hall, 1991. "Labor Demand, Labor Supply, and Employment Volatility," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1991, Volume 6, pages 17-62, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David Evans & Claire Mason & Haohui Chen & Andrew Reeson, 2024. "Accelerated demand for interpersonal skills in the Australian post-pandemic labour market," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 32-42, January.
    2. Tho Pham & Oleksandr Talavera & Zhuangchen Wu, 2023. "Labor Markets during War Time: Evidence from Online Job Ads," Discussion Papers 23-03, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Blanas, Sotiris & Oikonomou, Rigas, 2023. "COVID-induced economic uncertainty, tasks and occupational demand," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    2. Hensvik, Lena & Le Barbanchon, Thomas & Rathelot, Roland, 2021. "Job search during the COVID-19 crisis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    3. Nicholas Bloom & Philip Bunn & Paul Mizen & Pawel Smietanka & Gregory Thwaites, 2020. "The Impact of Covid-19 on Productivity," NBER Working Papers 28233, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Seung Jin Cho & Jun Yeong Lee & John V. Winters, 2021. "Employment impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic across metropolitan status and size," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 1958-1996, December.
    5. Lea Immel & Florian Neumeier & Andreas Peichl, 2022. "The Unequal Consequences of the Covid‐19 Pandemic: Evidence from a Large Representative German Population Survey," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(2), pages 471-496, June.
    6. Bellatin, Alejandra & Galassi, Gabriela, 2022. "What COVID-19 May Leave Behind: Technology-Related Job Postings in Canada," IZA Discussion Papers 15209, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Hansen, Stephen & Lambert, Peter John & Bloom, Nicholas & Davis, Steven J. & Sadun, Raffaella & Taska, Bledi, 2023. "Remote Work across Jobs, Companies, and Space," IZA Discussion Papers 15980, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Betcherman,Gordon & Giannakopoulos,Nicholas & Laliotis,Ioannis & Pantelaiou,Ioanna & Testaverde,Mauro & Tzimas,Giannis, 2020. "Reacting Quickly and Protecting Jobs : The Short-Term Impacts of the COVID-19 Lockdown on the Greek Labor Market," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9356, The World Bank.
    9. Bamieh, Omar & Ziegler, Lennart, 2022. "Are remote work options the new standard? Evidence from vacancy postings during the COVID-19 crisis," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    10. John (Jianqiu) Bai & Erik Brynjolfsson & Wang Jin & Sebastian Steffen & Chi Wan, 2021. "Digital Resilience: How Work-From-Home Feasibility Affects Firm Performance," NBER Working Papers 28588, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Rebecca Brough & Matthew Freedman & David C. Phillips, 2021. "Understanding socioeconomic disparities in travel behavior during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 753-774, September.
    12. Cerqua, Augusto & Letta, Marco, 2022. "Local inequalities of the COVID-19 crisis," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    13. Humphries, John Eric & Neilson, Christopher A. & Ulyssea, Gabriel, 2020. "Information frictions and access to the Paycheck Protection Program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    14. Alexander Bick & Adam Blandin & Karel Mertens, 2023. "Work from Home before and after the COVID-19 Outbreak," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 1-39, October.
    15. Nicola Pierri & Yannick Timmer, 2020. "IT Shields: Technology Adoption and Economic Resilience during the Covid-19 Pandemic," CESifo Working Paper Series 8720, CESifo.
    16. Liang, Xiao & Rozelle, Scott & Yi, Hongmei, 2022. "The impact of COVID-19 on employment and income of vocational graduates in China: Evidence from surveys in January and July 2020," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    17. Alexander Bick & Adam Blandin, 2020. "The Labor Market Impact of a Pandemic: Validation and Application of a Do-It-Yourself CPS," Working Papers 2031, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    18. Alejandra Bellatin & Gabriela Galassi, 2022. "What COVID-19 May Leave Behind: Technology-Related Job Postings in Canada," Staff Working Papers 22-17, Bank of Canada.
    19. Wei Cheng & Patrick Carlin & Joanna Carroll & Sumedha Gupta & Felipe Lozano Rojas & Laura Montenovo & Thuy D. Nguyen & Ian M. Schmutte & Olga Scrivner & Kosali I. Simon & Coady Wing & Bruce Weinberg, 2020. "Back to Business and (Re)employing Workers? Labor Market Activity During State COVID-19 Reopenings," NBER Working Papers 27419, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Rudy Arthur, 2021. "Studying the UK job market during the COVID-19 crisis with online job ads," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(5), pages 1-24, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Skill demand; Stay-at-home orders; COVID-19;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:82:y:2023:i:c:s0927537123000179. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/labeco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.