Employment Vulnerability Amid Covid-19: Evidence from Metropolitan Cities in Indonesia

Abstract

Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi (Jabodetabek) are metropolitan cities in Indonesia and they provide immense opportunities for migrants and workers to build up their careers and fortune. However, pandemic Covid-19 change their life as a worker in these metropolitan areas. In this study, we construct ‘vulnerable’ only for vulnerable towards layoff during pandemic and use different vulnerability indicators to capture the risks or vulnerabilities related to employment in the urban labor market during covid-19 health crisis. Utilize Survey Angkatan Kerja Nasional (Sakernas) year 2020 in city level, this study identifies the employment vulnerability and the effect of social economy condition on each employee amid Covid-19 pandemic in Jabodetabek area. The study uses multiple regression analysis in four selected sectors; accommodation, transportation, retail, and manufactures. The highest contribution to vulnerable workers comes from Job Positions. It implies that in blue-collar workers, craft workers, and service workers have larger likelihood to be laid off during pandemic. Transportation sector is the biggest contributor to vulnerable workers in availability to working from home. More importantly, gender still one of the main factors to determine the multidimension vulnerability index. Besides, age and education level still significantly to affect employment vulnerability in four sectors.