The foundations of life as we know it, learning for our youth and work for adults, have been shaken by the COVID-19 global pandemic. In a recent study of Kantar's LifePoints panelists, we uncovered the reality of the state of employment and education across eight countries.
1 in 3 (32%) of respondents globally had their employment impacted during the pandemic.
1 in 4 (25%) lost work due to changes in their business, either permanently from lay-offs, closures or down-sizing (10%), or via reduced hours for a temporary period (15%).
From the countries included in this study, India was the most affected, with 59% of respondents having their employment impacted by the pandemic.
27% of respondents live with another adult contributing towards the household whose employment was also impacted by the pandemic.
29% of people impacted are still unemployed.
29% of people who were impacted are still unemployed, with the US reporting the highest rate of continued unemployment at 42% and Mainland China the lowest at 17%. Only 44% of people impacted globally returned to the same job and 15% are employed again but on reduced hours and a reduced wage.
Younger age groups were more impacted in their employment during the pandemic.
The findings show that 18-24-year-olds have the highest remaining unemployment with 35% of non-students still out of work. However, 25-44-year-olds had their employment impacted the most during the pandemic (34%). 15% of 18-34-year-olds report to have lost their jobs due to business changes such as lay-offs, closures and down-sizing, whilst 21% of 24-44-year-olds had reduced hours for a temporary period.
Men are back at work.
Whilst the loss of work was relatively even across men and women, 9% more men are now back in employment. 4% more men have returned to their original job or something similar with the same hours and a further 5% are back in employment in a different function or industry with the same hours.
2% of both men and women left work to support the home-schooling of their children.
84% of parents of school-aged children globally report that they have had to do some home-schooling in the past 6 months.
Nearly 2 in 5 parents reported that their school-aged children have been educated from home full-time since August 2020. More than 4 of 5 said their children have been doing at least some in-home learning. 1 in 3 (32%) currently have school-aged children in their care.
Parental concerns on academic and social opportunities.
The biggest academic-related concerns parents have for their children are that they will fall back academically (30%) and suffer a social impact (29%).
For those parents with children that have been learning in-school only, the majority (33%) have no academic concerns for their children.
Learn more
Find out more from this research, including the impact on ecommerce and vaccine opinions. Explore more country breakdowns and access the complete report.
Editors note
This study was conducted using Kantar's Proprietary LifePoints panel in January 2021, n=8102 in the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, The Netherlands, India and Mainland China.