Corporate Hiring under COVID-19: Labor Market Concentration, Downskilling, and Income Inequality / Murillo Campello, Gaurav Kankanhalli, Pradeep Muthukrishnan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Campello, Murillo.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Kankanhalli, Gaurav.

Muthukrishnan, Pradeep.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w27208.

NBER working paper series no. w27208

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2020.

Summary:

Big data on job-vacancy postings reveal several dimensions of the impact of COVID-19 on the U.S. job market. Firms have cut back on postings for high-skill jobs more than for low-skill jobs, with small firms nearly halting their new hiring altogether. New-hiring cuts and downskilling are most pronounced in local labor markets lacking depth (where employment is concentrated within a few firms), in low-income areas, and in areas with greater income inequality. Cuts are deeper in industries where workers are more unionized and in the non-tradable sector. Access to finance modulates corporate hiring, with credit-constrained firms curtailing their job postings the most. Our study shows how the early-2020 global pandemic is shaping the dynamics of hiring, identifying the firms, jobs, places, industries, and labor markets most affected by it. Our results point to important challenges to the scale and speed of a recovery.

Notes:

Print version record

May 2020.