Open AccessTeleworking and lost work during the pandemic: new evidence from the CPS
Author(s) -
Matthew Dey,
Harley Frazis,
David Piccone,
Mark A. Loewenstein
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
monthly labor review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.265
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1937-4658
pISSN - 0098-1818
DOI - 10.21916/mlr.2021.15
Subject(s) - pandemic , quarter (canadian coin) , unemployment , work (physics) , covid-19 , demographic economics , population , telecommuting , temporary work , business , demography , economic growth , geography , economics , sociology , engineering , medicine , mechanical engineering , disease , archaeology , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
To measure the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics added questions to the Current Population Survey, the main U.S. labor force survey, starting in May 2020. This article analyzes the results from questions asking people (1) whether they teleworked because of the pandemic and (2) whether they were unable to work because their employers closed or lost business because of the pandemic. We use the data on telework to refine work completed earlier in the pandemic that classified occupations on their suitability for telework. We then apply the revised classification to examine trends in telework and the extent to which working in an occupation suitable for telework shields workers from unemployment. Our results show that the pandemic resulted in a large increase in teleworking, with 33 percent of U.S. workers reporting teleworking because of the coronavirus in the period May-June 2020, before declining to a still substantial 22 percent in the fourth quarter. Rates of lost work varied widely both by an occupation’s suitability for telework and by demographic category.