Pause, Pivot, and Shift: Situational Human Capital and Responses to Sudden Job Loss

Abstract

How, in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, do workers respond to rapid changes in the labor market? This paper mobilizes existing literature on occupational mobility and job loss to develop a theory of situational human capital in which some workers are better positioned to weather occupational transitions than others depending on the alignment between their skill sets, opportunities, and particular contexts. Previous literature looks at this in the case of “pausing,” when workers, such as women, take time off from work. Relatively less explored but equally consequential are transitions like “pivoting,” in which workers maneuver within their occupations to adjust their practices or platforms in order to keep working, and “shifting,” in which workers change their occupations altogether. Since most government unemployment benefits focus almost exclusively on workers’ pauses, they neglect to support workers as they pivot and shift during periods of labor market instability and disruption. This paper concludes by offering some policy recommendations to fill this gap.

COVID‐19 job loss and re‐employment among partnered parents: Gender and educational variations

“…This is surprising given that the pandemic disproportionately hurt women‐dominated jobs and increased women's child care demands (Yavorsky et al, 2021). Mothers may have effortfully managed child care through informal arrangements and/or expanded their job searches during the pandemic years, to facilitate their labor market re‐entry (Gowayed et al, 2022; Yang et al, 2022). The rise in telecommuting during the pandemic also could have pulled mothers into the labor market, thus offsetting some of the additional losses (in re‐employment and wages) that likely would have occurred (Montenovo et al, 2022).…”

“SHE CAN GET A VISA”: How Nationality and Class Shape Decision Making at a Kenyan NGO

“…Drawing on Gowayed, Mears, and Occhiuto’s “situational human capital” and Randall Collins’ “situational stratification,” elastic transnational stratification is the process whereby nationality and class (in conjunction with other social categories) influence the distribution of tasks and decision-making power among NGO workers and board members (Collins 2000; Gowayed et al 2022). Elastic transnational stratification accommodates the flexibility needed within the international development sector.…”