Working conditions in essential occupations and the role of migrants

Following a national lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, state governments in Germany published lists of essential'' occupations that were considered necessary to maintain basic services such as health care, social care, food production and transport. This paper examines working conditions in these essential occupations and identifies clusters of similar jobs. Differences across clusters are highlighted using detailed data on job characteristics including working conditions, tasks and educational requirements. Two clusters with favourable or average working conditions account for more than three-quarters of jobs in essential occupations. Another two clusters, comprising 20% of jobs in essential occupations, are associated with unfavourable working conditions such as low pay, job insecurity, poor prospects for advancement and low autonomy. These latter clusters exhibit high shares of migrants. An Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition is used to investigate which individual characteristics explain why migrants are more likely to have unfavourable working conditions. The results suggest that lacking proficiency in the host-country language is the main barrier to improving migrants' working conditions. (C) 2022 Economic Society of Australia, Queensland. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This paper examines the working conditions in essential occupations in Germany during the Covid-19 pandemic. It identifies clusters of jobs with favorable or average working conditions, as well as clusters with unfavorable conditions, particularly for migrants. The study finds that lack of proficiency in the host-country language is the main barrier to improving migrants' working conditions.