Page 62 - IJPS-11-5

International Journal of
Population Studies Atypical workers and COVID-19

Figure 2. Self-employment share and level of development: World, 2019
Source: Authors’ elaboration based on World Bank data.

The decision to adopt atypical forms of employment, establish the profiles of firms by size, sector of activity, and
such as temporary or part-time work, can be influenced region, whose atypical jobs were the most impacted during
by various internal and external factors. These may the COVID-19 crisis. This database has three components.
include the nature of the sector in which the firm operates, (1) Follow-up surveys were carried out in countries where
the level of technological development, and the overall ES had previously been conducted. These surveys cover
regulatory environment in the labor market. For example, several business domains: the evolution of labor force levels,
firms in highly competitive industries or those with high sales, and obstacles (Financing, informal sector practice,
seasonal demand may be more likely to rely on temporary and labor market regulations) encountered by enterprises
or contingent workers to increase workforce flexibility inherent to their environment. (2) A COVID-19 module
and reduce labor costs. Similarly, firms operating in for current ES that covers more than 18,300 firms surveyed
technologically advanced sectors may be more likely to offer in three waves of COVID-19 and belonging to 46 countries.
part-time or flexible work arrangements to attract highly Given that the empirical methodology we will mobilize
skilled workers with a premium on work-life balance. requires panel data, we have limited our database to the
Atypical forms of employment are disproportionately enterprises that were the subject of 3 waves of follow-up
occupied by workers with low levels of education or surveys, which yielded 12,193 enterprises from 19 countries.
qualification and young people and women (MTIP , 2020, The third component of the ES COVID-19 impact on firm
1
p.09). This may be partly because these workers may have databases is a COVID-19 module for informal enterprises.
fewer opportunities for stable, full-time work and may,
therefore, be more likely to seek out temporary or part- 2.2. Study variables
time jobs to gain work experience and build their resumes. The ES database provides a variety of indicators related
Women, in particular, may be more likely to work part- to firm-specific characteristics, including size, sector of
time or in temporary positions due to their caregiving activity, firm age, gender of the top manager, and number
responsibilities, which can make it difficult for them to of temporary workers. Furthermore, regarding variables
work a traditional 9-to-5 job. However, while atypical forms
of employment may offer some workers greater flexibility related to the external environment of the firm (such as
and autonomy in their work lives, they are often associated the obstacles inherent to the environment of the firm),
with lower wages, reduced benefits, and limited job security, the following 15 barriers were identified: access to land,
negatively affecting their well-being and economic stability. business licenses and permits, corruption, courts, crime,
theft and disorder, trade and commercial regulations,
2. Data and methods electricity, education-labor market mismatch, labor market
2.1. Data regulations, political instability, informal sector practices,
tax administration, tax pressure rate, telecommunications,
Our data were extracted from the World Bank database, and transportation.
Enterprise Surveys [ES]: COVID-19 impacts on firms. To
We examine the impact of the COVID-19 health crisis
1 Ministry of Labor and Professional Insertion, Morocco on atypical jobs by firm size, industry, and region. To do so,

Volume 11 Issue 5 (2025) 56 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.3575