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 p an demic in Eu rope. We apply t w o approaches: one developed by the Intern ational

Labour Or gani zation (ILO) and one by t he European Cent re for t he Developm ent of

Voca tional Trainin g ( CEDEFOP) .

Bot h approaches sh ow that an alarm ingly lar ge nu mb er o f EU w ork ers are p oten tial ly

ne g ativ ely af f ect ed by COV I D-re lat e d employ m e nt pro blems. The extent of th e

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

th e EU are in h ig h-risk sector s, w it h wom a n employe d in 4 3 p er ce nt of these.

CEDEFOP, on t he ot her hand, is n ot considering Manufact ur in g as bein g par ticularly

exposed t o t h e crisis in Eur ope, and t herefore 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 ,

51 per ce n t of w hich a r e how eve r f ille d by fe male w ork ers. Considering t he sh are

of employees w orki ng in badly hit sect ors, t he r el at ive risk of female em pl oy ees is m uch

higher th an t hat of men. Altogether 25 per cent of em ploye d w omen w hile only 2 0

pe r ce nt of em ploy ed m en w ork in these sectors in the w ho le EU. Simi lar or ev en

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