Labour market effects of COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa: An informality lens from Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal
Racky Balde, Mohamed Boly & Elvis Avenyo
#2020-022
The COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis that has put a local spotlight
on sub-Saharan Africa’s socio-economic challenges. This paper presents
real time survey evidence on the labour market effects of COVID-19 in
Senegal, Mali, and Burkina Faso. We investigate how informality
exacerbates the immediate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on job loss,
decrease in earnings, and difficulties for individuals to support their
basic needs. We document a reduction in economic activities and find
that workers in the informal economy tend to be more hard-hit by the
COVID-19 pandemic. Informal workers are more likely to lose their jobs
and tend to experience decrease in earnings. These findings also hold
for those who work in high-risk sectors. Informal workers equally appear
to be more likely to struggle to meet their basic needs in the midst of
the pandemic. We discuss the policy implications of these findings.
Keywords: COVID-19, Crisis, Labour Market, Informality, Africa
JEL Classification: J46, J63, O17, O55