The Penalty of Being Young: India’s Workers During the Pandemic

With the evolution of Covid-19 since its emergence in 2020, the pandemic has had multiple economic effects—effects which manifest as immediate shocks—but also as scarring effects having long-term repercussions. Certain demographics may be more exposed or vulnerable to these long- and short-term impacts. This chapter focuses on young workers who entered the Indian labor market for the first time during the pandemic. Using all-India CMIE-CPHS data, we track a panel of both the young workers, and the young entrants to examine this. Our findings reveal that even though there is only a marginal difference in the likelihoods of finding employment when comparing between the pandemic and the pre-pandemic entrants, the pandemic entrants face a greater disadvantage in the intensive margin in terms of the type of employment. There was a rise (drop) in the more precarious forms of employment like daily wage (permanent salaried) for the pandemic entrants as compared to their pre-pandemic counterparts. Further, they suffer disproportionately in terms of the associated earnings from this employment. The pandemic entrants made 60% lower monthly income than the pre-pandemic entrants in 2019. Even by 2022, the temporary salaried workers among the pandemic entrants continued to make 4% lower income as compared to the starting income of their pre-pandemic counterparts.