The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on post-Great Recession formal entrants : evidence from Mexico

I study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the formal employment of entrants from each post-Great Recession year. Using longitudinal Mexican social security records and an individual fixed-effects difference-in-differences design, I find that the pandemic caused more recent entrants from each post-Great Recession year to lose formal employment at higher rates than other post-Great Recession entrants that joined the formal sector before them. However, the gap in employment narrowed as the economy recovered. The impact was larger for women and workers with less formal work experience in industries with more interpersonal interactions, like hotels and restaurants.