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Do STEM graduates fare better at times of Crises? Evidence from COVID 19 pandemic in India

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  • Jheelum Sarkar

Abstract

I study whether and to what extent STEM college degrees offer labor market resilience during the COVID 19 shock. Both the pandemic and its nationwide lockdown affected occupations unevenly. While some jobs could adapt by switching to remote work or surging demand, others could not. Using the nationally representative high-frequency labor force survey data (2017-2023), I used a difference-in-difference strategy to compare changes in employment participation and monthly earnings between STEM and non-STEM graduates during and after the pandemic. The results suggest that individuals with a STEM college degree were more likely to be employed compared to their non-STEM counterparts during and after the pandemic period. Although STEM graduates appeared to experience higher wage growth compared to their non-STEM peers, the difference was statistically insignificant. Additional evidence on mechanisms suggests that the results are driven by the type of industries with higher share of STEM graduates, their geographical location and their career stages. The main findings were robust across alternative specifications and falsification tests.

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  • Jheelum Sarkar, 2025. "Do STEM graduates fare better at times of Crises? Evidence from COVID 19 pandemic in India," Papers 2508.12471, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2508.12471
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    2. Gunadi, Christian, 2019. "An inquiry on the impact of highly-skilled STEM immigration on the U.S. economy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    3. Black, Sandra E. & Muller, Chandra & Spitz-Oener, Alexandra & He, Ziwei & Hung, Koit & Warren, John Robert, 2021. "The importance of STEM: High school knowledge, skills and occupations in an era of growing inequality," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(7).
    4. David J Deming & Kadeem Noray, 2020. "Earnings Dynamics, Changing Job Skills, and STEM Careers," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(4), pages 1965-2005.
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