Youth employment in Argentina (2004-2020): First effect of the pandemic

Abstract

This article explores the early effects of the pandemic on youth employment and income. First, it considers changes and continuity in both the employment morphology and the actual evolution of hourly earnings during the pandemic peak in 2020 second quarter, and the third quarter rebound. Young workers continue to have the worst employability gradient (informality, temporary work, part-time work, low-skilled tasks) as well as a striking wage gap in the young-adult population. The COVID-19 lockdown halted almost all informal activities; thereby, the lower tail of the distribution, overwhelmingly represented by younger women and low-skilled workers, has been withdrawn from the labour force. Consequently, the average income of young people increases, while at the same time there is a notorious decline in their labour participation in the peak of the pandemic, with only one out of every four young people taking part in the labour market.