Female Labor Precariousness During the Pandemic Lessons for a Future Better Normal

Women experienced higher job losses and declining incomes, both during and after the pandemic. The main objective of this paper is to study the level and changes in women’s precariousness employment under the COVID conditions, measured with a set of statistical variables characterizing different aspects and complexity of employment quality for European countries. The results indicate a significant reduction in female employment in precarious jobs from the perspective of the duration of employment, during the pandemic. In order to identify the post-pandemic behavioral model, respectively, the simple return to previous jobs or a change in the pattern of employment, we analyzed the gender gap in the quality of employment under the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. By applying the principal components analysis and the cluster analysis, three groups of countries were identified, associated with behavioral models to access the opportunity to occupy and/or maintain the job. Based on these results, at the end of the paper, we identified possible ways to restore post-pandemic employment, taking into account the robust recovery, respectively, preserving the benefits of digitalization and changing both the employment model and the life model in households and communities.