December 20 (SeeNews) - The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted labour markets in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region beyond the scope of the countries' unemployment rates, Erste Group said on Monday.
The outbreak of the virus has disproportionately affected women across the labour markets, as well as it did the workforce participants from younger categories, Erste said in a special report.
In regard to sectors, contact-intensive businesses, most notably services and trade, have been hit both in terms of employment and the numbers of hours worked. Meanwhile, industry recovered faster in both mentioned aspects, with its rebound hindered by "supply-chain bumps of shortages and delays along the way," the report added.
Croatia remains the only CEE country whose unemployment rates in the second quarter exceeded European Union averages for both men and women, while Serbia had the highest labour slack,18.1%, in the region, Erste Group said.
The virus outbreak also made a mark on the cost of labour metric, but the impact on the criterion was described as "mild" across the region.
"With expected further improvements and tightening on the local labor markets, we may also see labor costs continuing on their upward trend," the Erste analysts also said.