Ng Irene Y H, Tan Zhi Han, Chua Vincent, Cheong Annie
Social Service Research Centre and Department of Social Work, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore, The Shaw Foundation Building, Blk AS7, #03-22, Singapore, 117570 Singapore.
Social Service Research Centre, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
Appl Res Qual Life. 2022;17(6):3349-3380. doi: 10.1007/s11482-022-10068-6. Epub 2022 Jun 1.
With labour markets already polarised in industrialised economies, if Covid-19 worsens this polarity, young people could be more severely affected. This is because their entry into a post-pandemic economy has ramifications for their divergent or convergent career trajectories far into the future. Therefore, on the premise that work life is central to quality of life, this article assesses the effects of low wage and Covid-19 on the psychological outlook of young people in Singapore. We found that Covid-19 did worsen polarisation. On average, higher wage workers telecommuted more and had more work, but low wage young workers bore the brunt of earnings loss and job disruption. Low wage respondents also experienced poorer psychological well-being, even after adverse child experiences, highest educational qualification and occupation type were controlled for. However, higher wage workers might be more psychologically affected by the Covid-19 impacts. This might be because low earning workers are more accustomed to employment instability. These findings suggest the urgency of policy attention to help low wage young workers recover from Covid-19.
在工业化经济体中，劳动力市场已经两极分化，倘若新冠疫情加剧这种两极分化，年轻人可能会受到更严重的影响。这是因为他们进入疫情后的经济环境会对其未来截然不同或趋于一致的职业轨迹产生影响。因此，基于工作生活对生活质量至关重要这一前提，本文评估了低工资和新冠疫情对新加坡年轻人心理状况的影响。我们发现，新冠疫情确实加剧了两极分化。平均而言，高工资工人远程办公的次数更多，工作量也更大，但低工资的年轻工人首当其冲地遭受了收入损失和工作中断的影响。即使在控制了不良童年经历、最高学历和职业类型之后，低工资受访者的心理健康状况也较差。然而，高工资工人可能在心理上更容易受到新冠疫情影响。这可能是因为低收入工人更习惯于就业不稳定。这些发现表明，政策亟需关注，以帮助低工资的年轻工人从新冠疫情中恢复过来。
