Labor market transitions in Bolivia during the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

In a descriptive way, this paper analyzes the transitions in the Bolivian labor market during the Covid19 pandemic to comprehend the patterns and trends of worker transitions across states related to employment, unemployment, temporarily inactive, permanently inactive; also for employed people like salaried, self-employed, unpaid family worker, other and finally for different economic activities. The information used corresponds to the Continuous Employment Survey reported by the National Institute of Statistics of Bolivia which has the virtue of following the same individuals in more than two periods. Labor transition probabilities according to the Markov chain process between the first and third quarter for 2019 and 2020 were obtained and allowed to observe important changes in the Bolivian labor market during the Covid-19 pandemic. Particularly, unemployed persons were in a more vulnerable situation than those who were inactive; however, due to the measures implemented during the peak of the pandemic the probability to flow to inactivity was higher. On the other hand, at first the emergency reduces the possibility for self-employed people to remain in this category; nevertheless, in the following period the self-employed status was an advantageous one.