Impact of COVID-19 pandemics on the EU labour market

COVID-19 had a significant impact on global labour markets, with a wide range of effects across demographic groups, economic sectors, and industries. The main objective of this study is to analyse how COVID-19 influenced key labour market indicators in Italy, Spain and the Czech Republic. Besides that, to examine if the significant influence of COVID-19 on particular labour market parameters may be linked to the poorer indicators prior to the pandemics. For the selected countries, the OLS regression is conducted with the following dependent variables: employment, unemployment, inactivity, part-time employment and average weekly hours worked. The Difference-in-Differences approach was used to examine the effect of COVID-19 on unemployment. The empirical findings were in accordance the hypothesis, demonstrating that the coronavirus pandemic amplified previously poor labour market characteristics. In Spain and Italy, labour market indices such as unemployment, employment, and inactivity were influenced more than in the Czech Republic. This thesis fulfils the gap in the field by studying the connection between COVID-19 and labour market characteristics such as part-time employment, inactivity, and average weekly hours worked in the countries analysed, which are not commonly addressed in existing studies.