This paper explores which workers are most exposed as a result of the lock-down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 has effectively shut down a number of sectors. Restaurants, shops and leisure facilities have been ordered to close, air travel has halted, and public transport has been greatly reduced. It argues:
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- The lock-down will hit young workers the hardest. Employees aged under 25 were about two and a half times as likely to work in a sector that is now shut down as other employees.
- Low earners are seven times as likely as high earners to have worked in a sector that is now shut down.
- Women were about one third more likely to work in a sector that is now shut down than men.
- One mitigating factor is that the majority of the affected younger workers and lower earners live with parents or others.
Click HERE to read the full article from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, 6th April 2020.