COVID-19 impacts on productivity growth and gender differences in employment

Labour productivity posts second-largest increase since 1981

During the pandemic, labour productivity posted its second-largest increase since 1981, rising 3.8% from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2020. The article "Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on productivity growth in Canada" shows that the reallocation of labour toward industries with a larger share of essential activities contributed substantially—about one-third—to this growth.

COVID-19-related disruptions in the labour market more severe for women The labour market disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic have been consistently more severe for women than for men. From March 2020 to February 2021, women accounted for 53.7% of year-over-year employment losses.

The findings of the article "Gender differences in employment one year into the COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis by industrial sector and firm size" point to the high proportion of women working in small-sized firms in service industries and to the greater employment losses among small firms in the service industries as the principal reasons for the overall gender difference.

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