Employment Status during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Ethiopia

Since the beginning of the year 2020, the world has been suffering from an unprecedented situation due to the Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19). The negative impact of COVID-19 is one of the worrisome issues across the globe. Among others, employment is one area affected during the COVID-19, which requires considerable scientific studies to identify factors affecting employment status throughout the disease crisis. Therefore, this study has mainly aimed to investigate the factors affecting the employment status during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia, taking a total of 2,396 respondents who had jobs before the COVID-19 outbreak. To achieve the stated objectives, the study has employed a binary logit regression model considering the employment status of respondents who lost their job (unemployed) and who secured their job (employed) during the pandemic. The model result indicates that females were more likely to be unemployed than males, persons living in a rural area were more likely to be unemployed than persons living in an urban area, and persons engaged in industry, service, and trade were more likely to be unemployed than people engaged in agriculture during the pandemic. Furthermore, during the pandemic, people living in the capital city of Ethiopia (Addis Ababa) were more likely to be unemployed compared to people living in the other regions of the country. Finally, based on these findings, critical recommendations were forwarded to the government and policymakers for their intervention.