"The Impact of COVID-19 on Small Business Employment and Hours: Real-Time Estimates With Homebase Data"
A webinar by , Department of Economics, Université du Québec à Montréal
June 16th, 2020 at 1pm
Summary: We use worker-firm matched daily data from Homebase, a scheduling and time clock software provider, to construct new real-time estimates of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on employment and hours worked of small businesses in service-providing industries. We find four key results: (1) employment of small businesses in the service sectors hit hardest by the pandemic contracted by an estimated 23 million since mid-February – a staggering 60% decline; (2) almost half of this decline is due to business closures; (3) about one third of closed businesses have reopened, but their employment remains far below pre-crisis levels; (4) average weekly hours declined sharply in the second half of March but have since largely recovered, although less so for temporarily furloughed employees. The results suggest that the official establishment estimates from the BLS employment report substantially underestimate the extent of the contraction because these estimates do not directly take into account the effects of small business closures. The results also indicate first green shoots that point to the importance of small businesses reopening as a key factor for the recovery.
"Studying the Social Determinants of COVID in a data vacuum"Â
A webinar by , Department of Sociology, Western UniversityÂ
June 9th, 2020 at 1pm
Summary:Â The Canadian government has no plans to release data on the race or socioeconomic status of COVID-19 patients. Therefore, whether COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting certain socio-demographic groups in Canada is unknown. We fill this data void by merging publicly available COVID-19 data with tabular census data to identify risk factors rendering certain geographic areas more vulnerable to COVID-19 infections and deaths. We combine insights obtained from this analysis with information on the socio-demographic profiles of smaller geographic units to predict and display the incidence of COVID-19 infections and deaths in these locales. Like in the U.S., COVID-19 has disproportionately affected black and immigrant communities in Canada. COVID-19 death tolls are also higher in Canadian communities with higher shares of older adults.
"Characteristics of COVID-19 cases, fatalities and recoveries across Canadian provinces"
A webinar by , Department of Demography, Université de Montréal
June 2nd, 2020 at 1pm
Summary: Provincial governments are responsible for COVID-19 epidemic surveillance. They maintain and disseminate the counts of cases, deaths, recoveries and hospitalizations related to the disease, which are used to trace the evolution of the pandemic nationwide. Information on the characteristics of patients infected with COVID-19 is also gathered but varies across provinces due to the lack of national guidelines for data collection. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has the mandate to harmonize and disseminate this information. Because of delays in provincial reporting, however, PHAC’s epidemiological updates on COVID-19 have never covered more than half of all COVID-19 positive cases. In this paper, we exploit all available data sources at the provincial and national level, and we provide the first comprehensive assessment of the characteristics of COVID-19 cases, fatalities and recoveries at the sub-national level in Canada.
"Labour Demand in the Time of Covid"
A webinar by , Department of Economics, Â鶹AV
May 26th, 2020 at 1pm
Summary: We use job vacancy data collected in real time by Burning Glass Technologies, as well as initial unemployment insurance (UI) claims data to study the impact of COVID-19 on the labor market. Our data allow us to track postings at disaggregated geography and by detailed occupation and industry. We find that job vacancies collapsed in the second half of March and are now 30% lower than their level at the beginning of the year. To a first approximation, this collapse was broad based, hitting all U.S. states, regardless of the intensity of the initial virus spread or timing of stay-at-home policies. UI claims also largely match these patterns. Nearly all industries and occupations saw contraction in postings and spikes in UI claims, regardless of whether they are deemed essential and whether they have work-from-home capability. The only major exceptions are in essential retail and nursing, the “front line” jobs most in-demand during the current crisis.
"Modeling the short-term dynamics of COVID-19 transmission in Québec"
A webinar by , Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Â鶹AV
May 19th, 2020 at 1pm
Summary: Disease surveillance can be challenging during outbreaks: testing can be limited, eligibility criteria for testing evolve, and a substantial fraction of SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms. In addition, daily cases counts, new hospitalizations, and deaths reflect the past states of the epidemic. The objective of this talk is to present modeling work that examines the short-term transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 in Québec and its impacts on hospitalizations.
"Leveraging new and existing labour force data to understand the impact of COVID-19 on workers in Canada"
A webinar by Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Sociology at University of Toronto, Xavier St-Denis.
May 12th, 2020 at 1pm
Summary:Â Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in Canada, workers have faced the prospect of job loss or a complete reorganization of their work. To a certain extent, this has magnified existing labour market inequalities, including in terms of risks of contracting COVID-19. The objective of this talk is to present the results of recent data-driven research on this theme. It will be divided in three parts. First, it will provide an overview of some of the challenges faced by workers in the context of COVID-19, as highlighted by recent research. Second, it will briefly present the results of an original analysis on the sociodemographic determinants of occupational risks of exposure to COVID-19 in Canada. Finally, it will discuss future research avenues and recent data innovations by researchers in Canada and elsewhere, with the objective of guiding researchers interested in conducting their own analyses.