Impact of Covid-19 pandemic on trends in the global online labour market

Absztrakt (kivonat)

With so many global metrics heading in the wrong direction over the last 20 years (e.g., increase in CO2, refugees and displaced, etc.), now lockdown measures and mobility restrictions that were implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic have challenged the labour market, transforming working patterns and working conditions, the employment rate has taken a bit of nosedive since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2019. Namely, it has triggered one of the worst job’s crises since the Great Depression. In 2020, International Labour Organization estimates show that the global employment-to-population ratio decreased from 57.6 in 2019 to 54.9 per cent in 2020. Moreover, the latest International Labour organization estimations reveal a decline in working hours of around 10.7 per cent relative to the last quarter of 2019, which is equivalent to 305 million full-time jobs. In order to offer better insight into the association between conditions in the online job market and the Covid-19 pandemic, the study utilises simple linear regression (OLS) and Linear Random Intercept Model to analyse if the number of confirmed Covid-19, on the country level, influenced the number of applicants on online projects, and if the value of these projects were conditioned on the number of the applicant. The statistical model uses a dataset for twenty countries, collected during the four months in 2021 (May, June, July, and August). Eventually, the paper found that the implementation of tighter rules regarding Covid-19 spreading pushed more people to work on the online market, which further downsized the price of work. Also, the increase in the implementation of workplace closure increased the number of applicants for the online job market throughout the observed period. Finally, the study proved that the online job market behaves according to the identical economic law as a regular market i.e., it is based on a supply-demand mechanism.