Differential Effects of Completing College in Reducing COVID-19 Job Loss by Race and Skin Color

The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented labor market disruptions, disproportionately affectinglow-wage workers and exacerbating existing social and racial inequalities (Coats et al. 2022;Cortes and Forsythe 2023; Fazzari and Needler 2021; Parker, Minkin, and Bennett 2020; Sáenzand Sparks 2020). While large-scale crises, including pandemics, have sometimes disrupted entrenchedeconomic hierarchies and reduced inequality by shaking the foundations of power andprivilege (Scheidel 2017), the COVID-19 crisis stands in contrast to this pattern, with inequalitypatterns more in line with recent economic recessions (Couch and Fairlie 2010; Couch, R. Fairlie,and Xu 2018; Couch, R. W. Fairlie, and Xu 2020; Hoynes 1999). Workers in low-wage sectors, suchas hospitality, retail, and other service industries, who are disproportionately from racial minoritygroups and less likely to hold a college degree, faced high levels of job insecurity. In contrast, workersin high-skilled occupations, particularly those able to work remotely, were better positioned toweather the economic storm, highlighting the role of educational attainment as a key factor in mitigatinglabor market disruptions (Acemoglu 2002; Angelucci, Manuela, Marco Angrisani, Daniel MBennett, Arie Kapteyn, and Simone G Schaner. 2020; Grusky et al. 2021; Montenovo et al. 2022).The sudden economic downturn and unprecedented labor market conditions triggered by COVID-19 provide a unique backdrop to reassess the utility of college degrees under crisis conditions andexplore whether the effects of having college degrees vary across different subsets of workers.