The Impact of Covid-19 on MENA Labor Markets: A Gendered Analysis from Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Jordan

This paper relies on a gendered lens to asses if the COVID-19 health crisis has differently affected women and men labor market outcomes in four MENA countries, namely Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco. The paper first overviews employment, unemployment and participation trends during the pandemic as opposed to pre the outbreak of the virus. It then focuses on documenting a number of facts about worker flows pre to post the outbreak of the Coronavirus, focusing on gender differences and volatility of private sector jobs. By focusing on four MENA countries to address its core research questions, the study provides a comprehensive review of the economic impacts of COVID-19, including the macroeconomic impacts, the existing evidence on employment, and non-employment trends, and post-COVID19 government assistance measures both for general economic relief and specifically for our population of interest i.e. women. The paper also uses a set of harmonized micro datasets from the ERF COVID-Monitor data to examine labor market stocks and worker flows by gender on a country-by- country basis amid and post the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. We decompose the contributions of worker flows by sector and type of employment to fluctuations in employment, unemployment and participation post the pandemic. The main findings of this paper show that COVID-19 has resulted mainly in decreases in employment, and increases of unemployment. Unemployment levels have revealed to be substantially higher post COVID-19, as opposed to pre-COVID levels, with significantly higher rates and increases for females. Female workers in the private wage employment sector have been the most vulnerable and their (out-of-employment) exit flows have substantially contributed to the rise in unemployment.