Abstract

• Author: Eleni Papadimitriou - Zsuzsa Blaskó
• Pages: 5-5

5

Abstract

I n t his note we assess th e econom ic r isk male and fem ale w orke rs f ace du e to th e COVID -

19 pandemic in Europe. Weapplytwoapproaches:one developed by the International

Labour Organization(ILO) and one by the European Centre for the Development of

Voca tional Trainin g ( CEDEFOP).

Bot h approachessh ow that an alarm ingly lar ge nu mb ero f EU w ork ers arep oten tial ly

negativelyaffected by COVI D-related employment problems. The extentof the

problem, as well as the relations betw een t he sit uation of m ales an d fem ales ar e how ever

rat her di fferen t across the two calculations. Wit h Manu factu ring listed amo ng t he hi gh-ri sk

sect ors, th e I LO -base d est im at es in dica t e t ha t alt og et he r alm ost 8 9 mi llio n jo bs in

the EU arein high-risk sectors,w it h wom a n employedin 4 3 per centof these.

CEDEFOP, on the other hand, is not considering Manufacturing as being particularly

exposed to the crisis in Europe, and therefore calculations based on the CEDEFOP

cla ssi fica ti on su gge st th at a ltog eth er, “on ly” 4 4 m il lio n jo bs a r e i n hig h-r isk se ct ors ,

51per centofwhich are how eve r fille d by fe male w orkers.Considering the share

of employees w orking in badlyhit sect ors, t he relat ive risk of female employ ees is m uch

higher than that of men. Altogether 25 per cent ofem ployed w omen w hile only 20

per ce nt of em ployed men w ork in these sectors in the w ho le EU. Simi lar orev en

stron ger disparit ies ar e foundwithi n t he m ajo rit y of the Memb er Sta tes.