{"id":2379,"date":"2020-10-19T16:24:30","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T15:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/?p=2379"},"modified":"2020-10-19T16:40:40","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T15:40:40","slug":"coronavirus-could-create-a-lockdown-generation-in-latin-america-if-governments-dont-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/coronavirus-could-create-a-lockdown-generation-in-latin-america-if-governments-dont-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus could create a lockdown generation in Latin America if governments don\u2019t act"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In our latest post, Dr Luciana Zorzoli, from our Management, Organisation and Employment Section, examines the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19 on young people in Latin America.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Coronavirus has hit the healthcare systems and societies of\nthe global south even harder than the rest of the world due to their already\nweak economies and\nhigh debt levels<\/a>. Latin America is no exception, and has been particularly\naffected due to very high infection numbers. With more than 7.9\nmillion cases<\/a> and more\nthan 300,000 deaths<\/a>, the region has been described as the world\u2019s worst hit\nregion. That is why, according to the World\nBank\u2019s June assessment<\/a>, the Latin American economy will contract 7.2% in\n2020 as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s more, some of the promising, if modest, trends of the\nlast two decades are being reversed by the pandemic. This was a region that was\nstarting to reduce huge levels of inequality thanks to significant economic\ngrowth from the commodity boom that ended in 2013, as\nwell as<\/a> some innovative wage policies and social programmes introduced\nby progressive governments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within this context, younger people are being\nespecially badly\nhit<\/a>. School closures are hurting education and, as in many countries, job\nprospects for them are particularly bad. If the region cannot control the virus\nand kickstart its economy, we will see the growth of a \u201clockdown generation\u201d,\ntrapped in unemployment, informal jobs and in-work poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unemployment and the gig economy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Both the quantity and quality of jobs are deteriorating\nrapidly as a result of the economic paralysis created by the pandemic. The UN\u2019s\nInternational Labour Organization estimates\nthat<\/a> the health crisis will push unemployment rates in the region up\nfrom 8.1% to 11.5% in 2020, the equivalent of more than 11.5 million newly\nunemployed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, an extra 30 million are expected to fall into\npoverty (and these estimates were made in May, before the effects of the virus\nreally took hold). Young people will be disproportionately affected, having\nalready<\/a> been enduring unemployment rates that were three times higher\nthan that of older adults before the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s the historically high level of informal work in\nLatin America that will make the recovery much more difficult. Before the\npandemic, more than half of the workforce across the region was in informal and\nprecarious employment, with no social protections like sick pay or even written\ncontracts. Again, young people make up an even higher proportion of this\ninformal workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With economies contracting due to the pandemic, even more\npeople are turning to gig work<\/a> throughout\nthe region in search of a daily income. But this comes\nwith costs<\/a>. Relying on work as a courier, taxi driver or providing cleaning\nservices through an app was already a tough job. It\u2019s generally low-paid and\ncircumvents minimum-wage laws, as workers are classed as self-employed or they\nsimpy work outside of all national labor laws. It\u2019s precarious, offering no job\nsecurity or benefits like sick pay or paid holidays. It\u2019s also very isolating,\nas you are generally working on your own, and it offers very little in the way\nof career prospects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Risks and rewards<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

With the pandemic, the risks involved with gig work\nincreased considerably as these workers come into contact with so many\ndifferent people. But the pandemic also brought demand for these services, with\nmore people ordering groceries and takeaways under lockdown, or taking taxis\ninstead of public transport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet life as a gig worker has not improved. Across Latin\nAmerica these key workers have reported a lack of support in terms of personal\nprotective equipment and health insurance. Huge numbers also say their incomes\nhave stayed the same or even worsened, despite carrying out more jobs. In one\nsurvey<\/a> of 298 drivers across 29 cities, 64% said their pay had dropped.\nThis is due to changes in the terms offered by companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thousands have protested for better pay and rights. The last\ncouple of months have seen strikes by delivery drivers in cities across the\nregion, including Argentina<\/a>, Brazil<\/a>, Colombia<\/a> and\nMexico. Different app companies operate there but the demands are the same: for\nbetter pay from the companies and better regulation from governments to prevent\nexploitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lack of regulation is a big part of the problem. It\nallows the dark side of the gig economy to develop: a growing pool of workers\nwith no employment protection, underpaid with few other job options, and little\npower to negotiate with big tech companies managing their workforce through\nalgorithms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latin America\u2019s recovery from coronavirus will require\nsignificant change to the region\u2019s labour markets. Without better protection\nfrom underemployment and in-work poverty, the region risks making inequality\nworse again. Listening to the demands of striking gig workers is a good place\nto start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr\nLuciana Zorzoli<\/strong><\/a> is a Lecturer in Employment Relations at Cardiff\nBusiness School.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In our latest post, Dr Luciana Zorzoli, from our Management, Organisation and Employment Section, examines the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19 on young people in Latin America. Coronavirus has hit the […]","protected":false},"author":1870,"featured_media":2383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1431],"tags":[1312,1313,1747,1745,1746],"class_list":["post-2379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-covid-19","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-informal-workers","tag-latin-america","tag-precarious-work"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paOfaS-Cn","meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Digital-portrayal-of-coronavirus-in-South-America-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1870"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2379"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2386,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379\/revisions\/2386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}