Racial and ethnic differentials in COVID-19-related job exposures by occupational standing in the US

  1. Noreen Goldman
  2. Anne R. Pebley
  3. Keunbok Lee
  4. Theresa Andrasfay
  5. Boriana Pratt

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Abstract

Researchers and journalists have argued that work-related factors may be partly responsible for disproportionate COVID-19 infection and death rates among vulnerable groups. We evaluate these issues by describing racial and ethnic differences in the likelihood of work-related exposure to COVID-19. We extend previous studies by considering 12 racial and ethnic groups and five types of potential occupational exposure to the virus: exposure to infection, physical proximity to others, face-to-face discussions, interactions with external customers and the public, and working indoors. Most importantly, we stratify our results by occupational standing, defined as the proportion of workers within each occupation with at least some college education. This measure serves as a proxy for whether workplaces and workers employ COVID-19-related risk reduction strategies. We use the 2018 American Community Survey to identify recent workers by occupation, and link 409 occupations to information on work context from the Occupational Information Network to identify potential COVID-related risk factors. We then examine the racial/ethnic distribution of all frontline workers and frontline workers at highest potential risk of COVID-19, by occupational standing and by sex. The results indicate that, contrary to expectation, White frontline workers are often overrepresented in high-risk jobs while Black and Latino frontline workers are generally underrepresented in these jobs. However, disaggregation of the results by occupational standing shows that, in contrast to Whites and several Asian groups, Latino and Black frontline workers are overrepresented in lower standing occupations overall and in lower standing occupations associated with high risk, and thus may be less likely to have adequate COVID-19 protections. Our findings suggest that greater work exposures likely contribute to a higher prevalence of COVID-19 among Latino and Black adults and underscore the need for measures to reduce potential exposure for workers in low standing occupations and for the development of programs outside the workplace.

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  1. Version published to 10.1371/journal.pone.0256085
  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.11.13.20231431v2 on medRxiv
  3. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.11.13.20231431: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Despite the insights provided by this study, our analysis has several important limitations. First, the 2018 ACS data on recent jobs used here may not provide an accurate picture of employment or occupational distributions during the pandemic. Unemployment rates rose markedly in many areas of the country during 2020. At the time of this writing, the peak rate was 14.7% in April 2020 compared to 3.5% in February 2020 for the US population age 16+ [33]. Unemployment rates were even higher for some racial/ethnic groups, including Latinos (18.9% in April) and Blacks (16.8% in May) [34,35]. Business closures, layoffs, and unemployment rates have varied a great deal from state to state and over time. Thus, it is impossible to determine whether or not workers were employed during 2020 at a particular time and place. Other consequences of the pandemic, such as virtual schooling, have led many parents, especially mothers, to leave the labor force entirely, at least until the pandemic is over [36]. Despite these caveats, we believe that the ACS data provide the best picture currently available of the occupational distribution of the US population at a time close to the onset of the pandemic. A related limitation is that, because our analyses provide no evidence about exposure for people who are unemployed or outside the labor force, our conclusions are necessarily restricted to the employed population. Additional concerns pertain to the use of O*NET data for measures of risk. These mea...

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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  4. Version published to 10.1101/2020.11.13.20231431v1 on medRxiv