Occupations in the European labour market during the COVID-19 pandemic

In order to capture the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labour market, several aspects need to be taken into account. First, containment measures put in place in member states at different times and with different levels of severity determined the interruption of several economic activities that were considered non-essential. Second, different occupations require varying degrees of physical proximity and social interaction to be carried out; this implies that they can be considered more or less teleworkable, and affected by different levels of epidemiological risk of contagion. This paper shows the labour market impact of the pandemic on different categories of workers in the EU. Occupations are distinguished by three main characteristics: whether they are critical or non-critical, their level of technical teleworkability and the level of social interaction required in the job. We show that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labour market has been heterogeneous across occupations and that all three dimensions are relevant to determine whether and to what extent the occupations were affected by the pandemic.