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How COVID-19 Affected the Quality of Work

Discover new insights on worsening job quality during the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2020 Great Jobs Report, a research partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Omidyar Network and Lumina Foundation.

More Great Jobs Insights

Download the 2019 Great Jobs report -- Not Just a Job: New Evidence on the Quality of Work in the United States -- and related dataset or read briefings that explore the opportunities available to low-income and non-college-educated workers for good jobs.

Cover for Not Just a Job: New Evidence on the Quality of Work in the United States
2019

Not Just a Job: New Evidence on the Quality of Work in the United States

Find out what matters most to U.S. workers and how the quality of their current job compares to the quality of life they want.

Additional Downloads

Cover for The Characteristics of Good Jobs for Low-Income Workers
2020

The Characteristics of Good Jobs for Low-Income Workers

The median personal income among workers in the bottom quintile of the income distribution in the U.S. is just $13,000. Gallup's Great Jobs research shows that these workers tend to be dissatisfied with several core attributes of their work, not just low pay. Download the briefing to learn more.


Cover of the Professional Certifications Offer Workers With No College Degree a Pathway to Good Jobs report
2020

Professional Certifications Offer Workers With No College Degree a Pathway to Good Jobs

Efforts to expand the use of certifications in industries like healthcare and education may help workers who have no postsecondary education work their way up from entry-level jobs to positions that offer a clear path to advancement. Download the briefing to learn more.

In addition to upending social interactions, the COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected work in the United States and forced millions of people into unemployment. Conventional labor market indicators document some of these changes but miss how the pandemic has affected the quality of work and played out differently for low-income workers and those working in low-quality jobs at the onset of the crisis.

How COVID-19 Affected the Quality of Work addresses these issues using the 2020 Great Jobs Survey, which builds on the 2019 study to measure worker satisfaction across 11 important dimensions of work and provide the first comprehensive measure of U.S. job quality beyond income and benefits.

Key findings:

  • Workers' job quality before the pandemic strongly predicts job quality changes during the pandemic.
  • COVID-19-related job and income losses have skewed heavily toward Hispanic and Black workers, as well as those with lower education and income levels.
  • Access to remote work has opened new gaps in job quality.
Report cover for How COVID-19 Affected the Quality of Work

40%
of U.S. workers have experienced worsening job quality since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

72%
of workers who started the pandemic in good jobs strongly agree their employer is taking all necessary safety precautions.

45%
of remote workers report improved job quality.

More Great Jobs Insights

Download the 2019 Great Jobs report -- Not Just a Job: New Evidence on the Quality of Work in the United States -- and related dataset or read briefings that explore the opportunities available to low-income and non-college-educated workers for good jobs.

Cover for Not Just a Job: New Evidence on the Quality of Work in the United States
2019

Not Just a Job: New Evidence on the Quality of Work in the United States

Find out what matters most to U.S. workers and how the quality of their current job compares to the quality of life they want.

Additional Downloads

Cover for The Characteristics of Good Jobs for Low-Income Workers
2020

The Characteristics of Good Jobs for Low-Income Workers

The median personal income among workers in the bottom quintile of the income distribution in the U.S. is just $13,000. Gallup's Great Jobs research shows that these workers tend to be dissatisfied with several core attributes of their work, not just low pay. Download the briefing to learn more.


Cover of the Professional Certifications Offer Workers With No College Degree a Pathway to Good Jobs report
2020

Professional Certifications Offer Workers With No College Degree a Pathway to Good Jobs

Efforts to expand the use of certifications in industries like healthcare and education may help workers who have no postsecondary education work their way up from entry-level jobs to positions that offer a clear path to advancement. Download the briefing to learn more.

Read the full report.

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