The future of labour segmentation after Covid-19

Abstract

Labour segmentation in national markets roughly operates through two porous borders, separating jobs into sectors - formal vs. informal ones - and into status - self-employed vs. paid employed, but characterized by a lot of overlaps. It results from the process of job creation, determined partly by labour-saving innovations in production and by globalization. The chapter is an essay to describe how the pandemic interacts with these two factors to potentially reshape the allocation of jobs between informal self-employment and formal paid employment or other possible combinations. The main findings are that the impact of these interactions is highly unclear on the medium- or long-term trend of labour. Self-employment has been an answer in most countries to the job shortage in its most prevalent informal form. The pandemic by reducing total employment in the short run first destroys low-paid employment but without challenging the current trajectory of employment along segmentation - low job creation driven by higher digitalization. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Rajib Bhattacharyya, Ananya Ghosh Dastidar and Soumyen Sikdar;individual chapters, the contributors.