6. The Short-Term Labor Market Effects of South Africa’s National COVID-19 Lockdown

We use representative labor force data to conduct a descriptive, empirical analysis of labor market outcomes over time on both the extensive and intensive margins to obtain a nuanced overview of how the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown affected the South African labor market. We show that aggregate employment reduced by 2.2 million (14%) in the second quarter of 2020, however, the distribution of job loss was heavily skewed toward vulnerable groups including the youth, those with lower levels of formal education, lower-skilled workers, union non-members, and informal sector workers. We also document notable changes in the distribution of working hours and a substantial increase in economic inactivity. This latter observation is characteristic of lockdown policy which induced an inability for both job-losers and jobseekers to participate in the labor market.