Page 59 - IJPS-11-5

International Journal of

Population Studies

RESEARCH ARTICLE
The vulnerable workforce: COVID-19 and the fate

of atypical workers

Aomar Ibourk 1,2,3 and Zakaria Elouaourti *
4
1 Department of Economics, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech, Morocco
2 Africa Institute for Research in Economics and Social Sciences (AIRESS), Rabat, Morocco
3 Policy Center for the New South, Rabat, Morocco
4 Department of Economics, Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences - Souissi - Mohammed
V University, Rabat, Morocco

Abstract
The Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly affected the global
workforce, with certain occupational groups facing greater challenges than others.
Atypical part-time, temporary, and gig job workers are among the most vulnerable.
This paper first examines the impact of the COVID-19 health crisis on atypical/
contingent workers by firm size, industry, and region. Second, we explore the factors
determining the increase/decrease of the temporary labor force at the firm level. Third,
we aim to verify the empirical validity of the Schumpeterian “destruction creative”
hypothesis since any crisis is associated with destroying old jobs and creating new
*Corresponding author:
Zakaria Elouaourti job needs. We mobilized a firm-level database of 12,193 firms from 19 countries and a
(zakaria_elouaourti@um5.ac.ma) dynamic logit model methodology. Our empirical results show that atypical workers
Citation: Ibourk, A. & Elouaourti, Z. were among those most impacted by COVID-19. Results by firm size show that small
(2025). The vulnerable workforce: firms raised the probability of increasing the level of the temporary labor force, as
COVID-19 and the fate of atypical opposed to medium- and large-sized firms. Results by sector of activity revealed that
workers. International Journal of
Population Studies, 11(5): 53-71. firms operating in sectors other than construction (hotels and restaurants, retail trade,
https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.3575 IT, transport, machinery, and equipment) were less likely to increase their temporary
Received: May 6, 2024 labor force. Geographic location is a key driver of the increase or decrease in a firm’s
temporary workforce. Furthermore, insufficiently educated labor and regulations
1st revised: May 29, 2024 drive temporary labor variations. Finally, the Schumpeterian “creative destruction”
2nd revised: July 6, 2024 hypothesis was empirically confirmed.
Accepted: October 12, 2024
Published online: December 2, Keywords: Atypical job; Coronavirus disease 19; Firm-level data; Africa; Middle East and
2024 North Africa; Europe
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution 1. Introduction
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, The Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic has profoundly impacted the global
provided the original work is
properly cited. workforce, with some occupational groups experiencing more significant challenges than
Publisher’s Note: AccScience others. The atypical workforce, which includes part-time, temporary, and gig workers,
Publishing remains neutral with has been particularly vulnerable during this crisis. The pandemic has exposed the fragility
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional of the atypical workforce, as these workers often lack access to traditional employment
affiliations. benefits such as health insurance and paid leave (Chen, 2021). Moreover, many atypical

Volume 11 Issue 5 (2025) 53 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.3575