Navigating Labour Market Disruptions: COVID-19's Impact On BRIC Economies

The economic and health impact of covid-19 on developed and developing countries have been asymmetrical. The resilience and response of the developing world have been distinct. The primary objective of the study is to analyse the consequences of Covid-19 cases, Covid-19 deaths and the stringency index on unemployment in the emerging economies. We take Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) as a proxy for emerging economies. The Granger Causality test for these emerging economies show that COVID-19 cases are a causal factor for unemployment in Brazil and China, however, it does not show causality for India and Russia. We also recognise the role of non-economic factors like stringency measures in the rise of unemployment. We have got the validation of a-priori expectation using the Granger causality test that the Stringency index is one of the causes for Unemployment in high-population density countries like India and Brazil. Overall, our study suggests that pandemic increases unemployment rate robustly for emerging economies and has a negative impact on the labour markets.