Hit Hard but Recover Slowly: The Asymmetric Effects of Social Distancing Policies on the US Labor Market

This study employs a difference-in-differences approach to examine the US labor market response to two widely used social distancing policies, stay-at-home (SAH) order and non-essential business closure, with special attention paid to the asymmetric effect of the policies’ imposition and lifting. Exploiting the variation across states and time, we find that state employment rates declined by 4.3% and 1.9% for the two policies respectively, within one month of the enaction of social distancing policies, but the recovery was slower after the policies were removed. We also highlight that the low-income group suffered the highest employment rate drop from the SAH enaction while presenting the mildest rebound. Self-employed workers were more affected by the policy impositions but recovered slightly faster than wage earners. Our results suggest persistent efforts must be made after the pandemic, especially for more vulnerable groups in the labor market.

Macroeconomic instability – unemployment

In the Ukrainian economy there is a steady growing trend of the actual values of the indicator «unemployment rate». The main causes of excessive unemployment in the Ukrainian economy are three crises: a) crisis of 2008–2009, caused by the global financial crisis; b) crisis of 2014–2015, caused by the military aggression of the Russian Federation; c) crisis of 2020 caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Economic crises cause a decline in economic activity and falling demand for labor. A particularly negative trend is the growth of unemployment in the age group 35–49. It concentrates the most experienced and highly productive workforce. The Ukrainian economy is receiving a double crisis blow - reduction in production due to the recession and reduction of social labor productivity due to the emigration of the most experienced and highly productive employees. The same problem arises due to rising unemployment in the group of experienced labor aged 50 to 59 years. Once again, there is an urgent need to point out the aggravation of the problem of the deficit of the Pension Fund of Ukraine. After all, the aging of the country's population, rising unemployment and labor emigration cause an increase in the pension burden per employee. This can eventually lead to the collapse of the current pension insurance system. at some stage, a significant part of future retirees, who today in good faith pay contributions to the PFC as employed, will not have anything to pay a pension. On a sectorial basis, the main factors in the growth of unemployment are the decline in production in industry and construction. An increase in capital investment does not lead to a decrease in unemployment. This paradox is explained by the fact that the absolute amount of capital investment in the Ukrainian economy is so small that it does not cause a significant impact on employment growth and unemployment reduction. The main vectors of the state employment policy are: stimulation of industrial production and construction, radical improvement of the investment climate in the Ukrainian economy.

Economic Security & the Regulation of Gig Work in California: From AB5 to Proposition 22

Employment is the primary legal and political means to address economic inequality in the United States. With the evisceration of the welfare state, employment is also key to democratic outcomes. Despite this, self-employed work deployed by labour platforms like Uber has grown in recent years. What can we learn from worker demands and recent regulatory attempts to clarify and extend who is covered by employment protections? Based on a decade of legal and ethnographic research in the state of California, I situate the legal and regulatory history of labour platform work in the context of platform workers’ experiences and responses to the insecurities and poverty promulgated by their putative status as independent contractors. In highlighting this history, I argue that self-organised labour platform workers were critical to the passage of a state law (AB5) that would have forced companies to treat them as employees—with access to predictable living wages, unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, and health insurance, among other safety net protections. Finally, I show how, leveraging tremendous structural and instrumental power, the major labour platform companies, in the middle of the global Coronavirus pandemic, sponsored a successful referendum on AB5, and lay out the anti-democratic implications of the referendum's passage.

Disparities in COVID-19 Fatalities among Working Californians

Background: Information on the occupational distribution of COVID-19 mortality is limited. Objective: To characterize COVID-19 fatalities among working Californians. Design: Retrospective study of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 fatalities with dates of death from January 1 to December 31, 2020. Setting: California. Participants: COVID-19 accounted for 8,050 (9.9%) of 81,468 fatalities among Californians 18-64 years old. Of these decedents, 2,486 (30.9%) were matched to state employment records and classified as confirmed working. The remainder were classified as likely working (n=4,121 [51.2%]) or not working (n=1,443 [17.9%]) using death certificate and case registry data. Measurements: We calculated age-adjusted overall and occupation-specific COVID-19 mortality rates using 2019 American Community Survey denominators. Results: Confirmed and likely working COVID-19 decedents were predominantly male (76.3%), Latino (68.7%), and foreign-born (59.6%), with high school or less education (67.9%); 7.8% were Black. The overall age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rate was 30.0 per 100,000 workers (95% confidence interval [CI], 29.3-30.8). Workers in nine occupational groups had mortality rates higher than this overall rate, including those in farming (78.0; 95% CI, 68.7-88.2); material moving (77.8; 95% CI, 70.2-85.9); construction (62.4; 95% CI, 57.7-67.4); production (60.2; 95% CI, 55.7-65.0); and transportation (57.2; 95% CI, 52.2-62.5) occupations. While occupational differences in mortality were evident across demographic groups, mortality rates were three-fold higher for male compared with female workers and three- to seven-fold higher for Latino and Black workers compared with Asian and White workers. Limitations: The requirement that fatalities be laboratory-confirmed and the use of 2019 denominator data may underestimate the occupational burden of COVID-19 mortality. Conclusion: Californians in manual labor and in-person service occupations experienced disproportionate COVID-19 mortality, with the highest rates observed among male, Latino, and Black workers.

STIMULATION OF EFFECTIVE EMPLOYMENT IN THE CONDITIONS OF SOCIAL VULNERABILITY

The purpose. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the need to improve the modern state employment policy under the intensification of external migration of the population of Ukraine. Effective institutional-administrative, organizational-economic, and information tools of the state employment policy should be used to create and improve the quality of existing jobs, intensify employment in rural areas, eliminate shadow employment and wages, equalize imbalances in supply and demand in the labor market. Design/Methodology/Approach. To study the need to develop modern state employment policy in Ukraine, the authors used the following research methods - theoretical and logical explanation, statistical analysis, systematization and explanation, semantic analysis. The study was conducted within the framework of institutional economic theory, migration, and state regulation of the economy. Conclusions. The studies have shown that the containment of external migration processes by increasing the number and improving the quality of jobs, in connection with which the task of developing the state employment policy against the background of high migration activity of the population of Ukraine is relevant. It is substantiated that the main challenges of the modern sphere of employment in Ukraine lead to an increase in external migration, namely: formation of labor shortage in the national labor market, intensification of destructive changes in employment; low pay, especially for budget sphere workers, the spread of shadow employment schemes, which leads to a decrease in social protection of employees; strengthening of professional and qualification imbalance in demand and proposals in the labor market due to the mismatch in training the specialists for the needs of the economy. Other challenges are the unformed labor market in rural areas, preservation trends of open and hidden unemployment among the rural population, reducing the demand for labor in rural areas; lack of appropriate conditions for the development of inclusive labor market, the insufficient realization of opportunities and potential of the state employment services in ensuring the innovative development of employment. The objective necessity of realization of effective institutional-administrative, organizational-economic, and information tools of the state employment policy is proved, which largely depends on the natural containment of migration processes in Ukraine. The implementation of the presented tools is focused on economic stabilization of the situation in the country and regions by stimulating the de-shadowing of business and income, increase the welfare of the population, increase of opportunities for young people in employment, and the growth of aspirations of migrant workers to remigration and realization of own business goals on the territory of Ukraine. Originality/value. The value of the research lies in the development of the mechanisms to ensure the competitiveness of national and regional labor markets as a tool for regulating external labor migration, as well as for improvement of the state employment policy, especially the development of innovative and creative types of work.

EMPLOYMENT AS ONE OF KAZAKHSTAN'S SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC POLICY TOOLS

В статье отмечается, что в Казахстане за последний период наблюдается снижение занятости населения при одновременном повышении уровня безработицы. Формирование новых реальностей в области занятости заставляет по-новому рассматривать расстановку сил между рынком и государством, работником и работодателем. В связи с этим актуализируется вопрос выбора инструментов социально- экономической политики, ориентированной на стимулирование занятости в Казахстане. Проведен анализ основных индикаторов рынка труда Казахстана, рассмотрена структура наемных работников по статусу занятости за последние годы, удельный вес распределения занятого населения по видам экономической деятельности, уровень оплаты труда на предприятиях и организациях, занимающихся предпринимательской деятельностью. Авторы отмечают, что основным направлением в области занятости населения является обеспечение внутренней и внешней конкурентоспособности малого и среднего бизнеса. Изучение динамики процесса региональных рынков труда, выявление основных причин незащищенной занятости и выявление существующих преград перехода на постоянную работу, усиление функций службы занятости должны стать основными задачами государственных органов занятости. Для развития данной сферы государство должно продолжить создавать конкурентоспособную среду, распространение необходимых знаний, усиление работы профсоюзов и улучшение механизмов диалога с частным сектором. The article notes that in Kazakhstan over the last period there has been a decrease in employment of the population, while the level of unemployment has increased. The formation of new realities in the field of employment forces us to consider in a new way the balance of power between the market and the state, the worker and the employer. In this regard, the issue of choosing instruments of socio-economic policy focused on stimulating employment in Kazakhstan is becoming topical. The analysis of the main indicators of the labor market in Kazakhstan is carried out, the structure of hired workers by the status of employment in recent years, the proportion of the distribution of the employed population by types of economic activity, the level of remuneration at enterprises and organizations engaged in entrepreneurial activity. The authors note that the main direction in the field of employment is to ensure the internal and external competitiveness of small and medium-sized businesses. Studying the dynamics of the process of regional labor markets, identifying the main causes of insecure employment and identifying existing barriers to the transition to permanent work, strengthening the functions of the employment service should become the main tasks of state employment agencies. To develop this area, the state must continue to create a competitive environment, disseminate the necessary knowledge, strengthen the work of trade unions and improve mechanisms for dialogue with the private sector.

Regional unemployment and state employment regulation

The purpose of the article is to study a unique and planned sphere of life of social and economic society in the regional labor market. As it also covers the market of workforce directly connected to production, the concepts unemployment and workplace safety are important. The loss of work means low quality of life and the instability of the economy for many people. Employment determines the content of important aspects of social development to meet the needs of people in the labor market. The article emphasizes that the main policy of the state in regulating the labor market is the implementation of an employment policy for the entire population that preserves the natural level of employment, does not allow the emergence of cyclical employment, the formation of a “flexible market” that quickly adapts to internal and external changes, allowing to maintain stability and management. This compared to the traditional market creates conditions for flexible employee management in conditions of incomplete working day, temporary employment, replacement. On this flexible market, every citizen, looking for work, is obliged to find a workplace that meets its requests. In the labor market, public policy goes in two directions. Active training and retraining in order to create new jobs, ensuring employment and deliverance from unemployment. This can include events implemented in the framework of programs in our country. Passive is support for unoccupied citizens by providing social benefits. The main methods applied by the state in providing regional employment include stimulating investment in the economy, depending on the specifics of each region, which is the main condition for creating new jobs.

Workplace Support for Employees in Recovery From Opioid Use: Stakeholder Perspectives

The dual challenges of COVID-19 and the opioid epidemic have heightened the need of Maryland workplaces for accessible resources and supports. This paper describes efforts of the Workplace PROSPER (Partnering to Reduce Opioid Stigma and Support Employment in Recovery) project team to explore opioid-related state employment needs from Key Stakeholder perspectives. Discussion revealed significant overlap between the needs identified by stakeholders and pre-existing recovery friendly initiatives in other states. However, this convening identified the need for increased training of medical professionals in communicating about work capacity and safety as well as for resources to support family members of individuals with Opioid Use Disorder and model programs for hiring individuals in recovery. Next steps include the creation and dissemination of a survey to obtain a broader base of feedback and the development of a robust set of online recovery resources for Maryland employers and employees.

Working 9 to Non-Stop: The Fair Housing Act's Sexual Harassment Protections for Domestic, Agricultural, and Other Live-In Workers

Live-in workers, for whom their bosses are typically also their landlords, are often trapped in sexually harassing situations that feel as though they have no practical or legal redress, especially when the worker’s harasser can both fire and evict them in one fell swoop. This Note explores the novel possibility of using fair housing law, including the Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) and state/local fair housing statutes, as a tool to provide legal protections to workers with employer-provided housing (“live-in workers”) who experience sexual harassment or violence in the workplace. There is currently very little case law in which live-in workers have brought fair housing and employment discrimination claims simultaneously, and functionally no case law in which attorneys have brought both claims for live-in worker sexual harassment cases. This Note argues that, under existing fair housing law, many live-in workers should be eligible to bring claims under the FHA and equivalent state laws that prohibit discrimination in housing. As a result, the FHA and equivalent state claims can provide sexual harassment and assault protections for workers, including domestic workers and farmworkers, who may not receive protections under federal or state employment discrimination law. Furthermore, this Note argues that the FHA can provide supplemental or stronger protections from sexual harassment for live-in workers than traditional Title VII or employment discrimination claims. It accordingly suggests that plaintiffs facing harassment or sexual assault in live-in industries should pursue fair housing claims in addition to or in place of Title VII and employment discrimination claims, in order to achieve maximum protection and relief.