Economic impacts of COVID-19 lockdowns: An examination of recoveries in Jordan

• The unemployed share of the adult population in Jordan increased from 7% to 16% during the lockdown that lasted from 18th March to 15th April 2020. The unemployment share improved to 11% by September 2020, falling short of the pre-lockdown level.
• Wage earnings decreased by 42% of pre-pandemic baseline levels on average during lockdown. These partially recovered after the easing of lockdown restrictions but remained 19% below their baseline.
• About half of workers faced some difficulty buying food during lockdown. Even afterwards, about 10% of working respondents skipped meals or reduced portions. Borrowing and spending savings were the two most popular financial coping methods.
• Low wage workers and refugees earned only a small fraction of their pre-lockdown earnings during restrictions. Less educated workers also faced steep declines in earnings and hours during lockdown. Highly educated and high wage service workers saw relatively larger reductions in hours worked after lockdown compared with other workers, but smaller reductions in earnings.
• Lockdown restrictions implemented on 17^th March reduced mobility, and more so for the rich. When measuring the number of trips taken per day using mobile phone meta-data, we find the number of trips taken within a day fell on average by 57% to between 1 and 2 per day, and more so for wealthy individuals living in high-rent neighborhoods. The impacts emerged with the first case of Covid-19 in Jordan and persisted, with curfews having large impacts on mobility.

All opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Financial support from the International Growth Centre and the Taiwan Business EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund is gratefully acknowledged.