No. 148, February

About 60 per cent of the businesses surveyed in January claimed that the pandemic had reduced their revenue last year. The hospitality industry has been hit particularly hard: annual revenues here are likely to have fallen by about 37 per cent in 2020, with almost one in three businesses seeing a drop of more than 50 per cent. Fear of bankruptcy increased again in all sectors in January.

The KOF Business Situation Indicator fell in January after having risen slightly at the end of 2020 (see G 3). While the business situation in the goods-producing sectors is stable to positive, some service industries in particular are struggling. The pandemic is thus driving a wedge between the trends in different sectors of the economy.

Cancelled events, Zoom conferences and looking after children while working from home: the coronavirus pandemic has drastically changed the world of work – including at KOF. In addition, researchers have had to readjust their methodologies and working practices in order to take account of the many facets and fast-moving pace of the coronavirus crisis. Eight KOF economists tell us how COVID-19 has affected their research and what they have learned for their work from the pandemic.

Using a new method, researchers from KOF and ETH have for the first time studied how discrimination occurs on online job boards. They are able to show that discrimination based on origin is widespread – and that the time of day plays a key role. So do online platforms increase discrimination in job searches or, on the contrary, can they be used to create more fairness? Co-author Daniel Kopp discusses the most important findings.