Oecd covid survey eag indd

partner countries with available data (Figure 12).
At higher education levels, the differences level out 
further. Among tertiary-educated adults, the change in 
the unemployment rate of women between 2020 and 
2019 is within ±1 percentage point that of men in 80% 
of OECD and partner countries.
Many factors may have contributed to balancing 
out the impact of the pandemic on unemployment 
across genders. Sectors such as health and welfare, 
characterised by high female employment, have 
been under pressure during the crisis, with many 
working additional hours as demand surged during 
the early stages of the pandemic. At the same time, 
sectors characterised by higher male employment 
where physical contact is lower, such as construction 
and manufacturing, were also authorised to work 
in subsequent phases of the pandemic. Moreover, 
policies that have enabled women to request part-time 
work or special care leave during the crisis may have 
cushioned the adverse effects of the pandemic on 
women’s employment (OECD, 2021
[24]
).
However the pandemic has brought on more 
inequality in a few countries. In Colombia and Costa 
Rica, the gender difference in the unemployment 
of adults with below upper secondary education 
was amplified in favour of men by 4-5 percentage 
points between 2019 and 2020. In other countries, 
the gender gap reversed. In the Slovak Republic, 
while women were less likely to be unemployed 
than men in 2019, close to 30% were unemployed 
in 2020 compared to 26% of men. In Lithuania, the 
opposite occurred, with the pandemic increasing the 
unemployment rate of men by 6 percentage points, 
while the unemployment of women remained generally 
stable (Figure 12).
Unemployment statistics do not capture all of the 
labour-market slack due to COVID-19, as some 
unemployed individuals are unable to actively seek 
employment or are not available for work and are 
therefore classified as “out of the labour force”. Gender 
differences in the increase in inactivity rate due to the 
pandemic have also been generally low for all levels 
of educational attainment in most OECD and partner 
countries. However, some countries have seen an 
increase in the inactivity rate of women compared to 
that of men during the COVID-19 crisis. For instance, 
in Italy, the inactivity rate among women without upper 
secondary attainment rose from 53% in 2019 to 59% 
in 2020 and that of men from 18% in 2019 to 22% in 
2020.

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36
© OECD 2021
The State of Global Education: 18 Months into the Pandemic
-4
-2
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2
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6
8
10
12
14
Percentage points
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Figure 12•
Change in unemployment rates of 25-64 year-old adults with below upper secondary attainment 
between 2019 and 2020, by gender 
Percentage point difference (2020-19)
Countries are ranked in descending order of the change in the unemployment rate of women between 2019 and 2020.
Source: 
OECD (2021
[25]
), 
Education at a Glance Database
, 
http://stats.oecd.org
. See 
Source
section for more information and 
Annex 3 
for notes (
https://doi.org/10.1787/69096873-en
). 
Age group
Young workers often bear the brunt of economic and 
employment crisis as they often have not acquired 
the skills and professional experience needed in the 
labour market and are more likely to have short term 
or precarious contracts. In times of layoffs, they are 
also often the first to go as they have not acquired 
sufficient seniority. While the difference in the rise in 
unemployment between 2019 and 2020 across age 
groups has been moderate, the increase in the youth 
unemployment rate still outpaces that of older adults 
across all levels of educational attainment. Among 
25-34 year-old adults with below upper secondary 
attainment, unemployment increased by 2 percentage 
points on average between 2019 and 2020 
compared to 1 percentage point among
45-54 year-olds. The same pattern is observed 
among adults with tertiary attainment, where 
unemployment increased by 1.4 percentage points 
among 26-34 year-olds between 2019 and 2020 
compared to 0.7 percentage points among 45-54 
year-olds.
Despite the economic slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 
the share of young adults neither in employment nor in education or 
training did not change remarkably between 2019 and 2020 
The share of young adults (18-24 year-olds) neither 
in employment nor in education or training (NEET) 
increased from 14.4% in 2019 to 16.1% in 2020 on 
average across OECD countries. However, this share 
increased by more than 4 percentage points over 
this period in Canada, Colombia and the United 
States. Similarly, the increase in the share of NEETs 
among 25-29 year-olds is particularly marked only in 
the aforementioned countries, Israel and Latvia, and 
increased from 16.4% in 2019 to 18.6% in 2020 on 
average across OECD countries. It should, however, 
be noted that annual data have been used for this 
analysis, which could hide some important variations 
over the months. 
The share of NEETs among 18-24 year-olds 
increased only slightly between 2019 and 2020 in 
many countries, partly because more young people 
extended their studies. Particularly, in Austria, France, 

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© OECD 2021 
37
The State of Global Education: 18 Months into the Pandemic
Poland, Portugal and Slovenia, further education 
helped limit the increase in the share of NEETs. For 
instance, in Portugal, the share of young adults that 
are NEET increased by less than 2 percentage points 
between 2019 and 2020, while the increase in young 
adults in education increased by 4 percentage points, 
from 54% in 2019 to 58% in 2020. Similarly, in France, 
the share of NEETs remained stable between 2019 
and 2020, but the share of young adults in education 
increased by 2 percentage points, from 54% to 56% 
over this period. 
Governments across the world reacted quickly to the 
economic challenges that the youth are facing. For 
example, the European Commission has launched the 
“Youth Employment Support: A bridge to jobs for the 
next generation (European Commission, 2020
[26]
) . 
Depending on the speed of the economic recovery, 
the education-to-work transition may be smoother in 
the future.