Losing Livelihoods : The Labor Market Impacts of COVID-19 in Bangladesh

This paper provides early insights into the labor market impacts of the ongoing Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) crisis in Bangladesh, with a special focus on three especially vulnerable areas: poor areas in Dhaka and Chittagong City Corporations and Cox’s Bazar district. The authors build on household surveys collected before the crisis and phone monitoring surveys collected after the start of the crisis to shed light on the implications of COVID-19 for employment and earnings. The findings presented indicate substantial labor market impacts both at the extensive and intensive margin, with important variation across areas and gender, largely due to the nature of occupations affected by the crisis. The findings also point to substantial uncertainty about job prospects.