How resilient were essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the role of essential workers - the employees in essential sectors like health, long-term care and food supply that had to continue operating also during lockdowns. Using detailed data from the first two waves of the pandemic in Italy, this study investigates empirically how essential workers responded to the impact of the pandemic, compared to other workers. As the often strong presence of migrants among essential workers was widely noted, special attention is given to differences in behaviour between migrants (or foreign citizens) and the native-born (or Italian citizens). The considerable variation of the COVID-19 impact in Italy over time and regions allows for estimating workers' individual responses in terms of hours worked, sick leave and intentions to find another job. The results suggest that essential workers have shown a certain resilience. Hours worked strongly increased for native-born essential workers and remained roughly stable for their foreign-born colleagues. While native-born essential workers stayed home sick more often, there was no such change for foreign-born essential workers. With the exception of foreign citizens, essential workers did not start looking more often for another job.