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The role of personal characteristics in shaping gender-biased job losses during the COVID-19 pandemic: The case of South Africa

Author

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  • Lumengo Bonga-Bonga

    (College of Business and Economics, School of Economics, University of Johannesburg)

  • Thabiso Molemohi

    (College of Business and Economics, School of Economics, University of Johannesburg)

  • Frederich Kirsten

    (College of Business and Economics, School of Economics, University of Johannesburg)

Abstract

The Coronavirus pandemic has caused major economic restrictions and job losses that have disproportionately affected the most vulnerable in society. Studies report that in South Africa females have suffered greater job losses compared to males during the pandemic and while extensive research has been conducted on the gender-biased impact of national restrictions, little is known about how personal characteristics could have further exacerbated gender inequalities. By using the NIDS-CRAM waves and the NIDS Wave 5 dataset this paper estimated the impact personal characteristics like the level of education, age and number of children have had on dissimilar job losses for males and females in South Africa before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results confirm the importance of personal characteristics reducing job losses for both males and females in the pre-pandemic and pandemic period. However, the results also confirm that these personal characteristics do have gender-biased impact on job losses during the pre-pandemic and pandemic period. For example, tertiary education was a stronger protector against job losses for females before the covid 19 pandemic. However, during the pandemic education reduces significantly as protector against job losses for females and becomes more relevant for males keeping their jobs. Age remained a strong positive protector against job loss for females compared to males in both periods, while the number of children increased the chances of females losing their job more so than males during the pandemic period. These results provide vital insight into the role of personal characteristics in shaping gender-biased job losses during the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods in South Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Lumengo Bonga-Bonga & Thabiso Molemohi & Frederich Kirsten, 2023. "The role of personal characteristics in shaping gender-biased job losses during the COVID-19 pandemic: The case of South Africa," Economics Working Papers edwrg-08-2023, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, South Africa, revised 2023.
    • Handle: RePEc:ady:wpaper:edwrg-08-2023
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    Keywords

    COVID-19; Gender inequality; job losses; South Africa; National Income Dynamics Study-Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey;
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