Working hours lost due to COVID-19 in Africa 2020

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic had a severe effect on employment and working hours during the first four quarters of 2020. This could be linked to both the efforts of the countries to curb the infection rate through lockdowns, curfews and other restrictions, as well as the economic effects of these constraints. Furthermore, as of the fourth quarter, Southern Africa lost the most working hours on the African continent, at 8.2 percent. This was followed by Northern Africa, which lost 6.5 percent of its working hours. Eastern, Western, and Central Africa came next with 4.2, 3.6, and 3.4 percent, respectively.

Overall, only Southern and Northern Africa lost more working hours compared to the world average and the African average in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Percentage of working hours lost during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Africa from1st to 4th quarter 2020, by sub-region

Characteristic	Q1 2020	Q2 2020	Q3 2020	Q4 2020
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Release date

January 2021

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Region

Africa

Survey time period

Q1 to Q4 2020

Special properties

Estimates as of January 25, 2021

Supplementary notes

The source estimated the values based on a model namely "nowcasting model".

Values were calculated taking employment levels of the fourth quarter of 2019 as the baseline.

Full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs data that are more than 50 million are rounded up to five million, while the values lower than the threshold are rounded to the closest million.

To demonstrate the magnitude of the predicted hours lost, the equivalent losses in full time jobs are introduced. They are calculated based on the assumption that decreases in working hours were borne entirely and comprehensively by a group of full-time workers, while the rest of the workers experienced no reduction in working hours.

According to the source, the figures should not be interpreted as number of jobs lost or actual increase in unemployment.

A benchmark of working hours before the pandemic was used to compute the FTEs of working hours percentage-drops.

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