Workplace Mobility Research Articles

Coronavirus and Social Distancing: Do Non-Pharmaceutical-Interventions Work (at Least) in the Short Run?

Using detailed daily information covering 100 countries and an event-study approach, we estimate the short run effects of implementing Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) on the spread of the COVID-19 virus at the early stages of the pandemic. We study the impact of two NPIs – stay-at-home requirements and workplace closures – on three outcomes: daily residential and workplace mobility; the daily growth rate of cases; and the daily growth rate of fatalities. Acknowledging that we observe a mobility reduction in countries before they implemented NPIs, we find that immediately after NPIs were implemented, mobility declined by 0.2 standard deviation (SD), and two weeks afterwards it was down by 0.7 SDs. 25 days after the NPIs were implemented, the daily growth rate of cases and deaths was lower by 10% and 8.4% respectively. Our results reveal that between 53 and 72 percent of the reduction of the daily growth rate of cases and deaths associated with a reduction of mobility is caused by NPIs.

Is remote working a privilege? A spatial Durbin approach of digital infrastructure and workplace mobility change during the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.

Utilizing workplace mobility change from Google Community Mobility Report as a proxy for the availability of remote working, the present study aims at (1) testing the spatial dependence of workplace mobility change of U.S. county during the COVID-19 outbreak; (2) examining the impact of ICTs access on the workplace mobility change; (3) investigating the spillover effect of ICTs access from adjacent counties on workplace mobility change (N = 1027). Based on the result of the global measure of spatial dependence, this study identifies the spatial pattern of workplace mobility across the contiguous U.S., and the spatial pattern is consistent across time from March to December 2020. Besides, after controlling for democratic and occupation factors, the results of the spatial Durbin error models find that if a county with better digital infrastructure (i.e., more devices, more available and faster Internet connection), the people in the county tends to have the option to shift to remote working during the pandemic, and their workplace mobility change would be larger comparing to the baseline of pre-pandemic period. And this finding is constantly detected across 10 months in 2020, which illustrates that the ICTs access is an inevitably important determinant for the availability of remote working during the pandemic. More interestingly, the results also detect a spillover effect of the ICT access from adjacent counties. Therefore, ICTs access is an important factor affecting the availability of remote working during the pandemic. And the effect is not only situated in people’s current location, but also spilled from adjacent geographical locations. In other words, remote working could be a privilege for those households and individuals with access to better digital infrastructure.

Coronavirus and Social Distancing: Do Non-Pharmaceutical-Interventions Work (at Least) in the Short Run?

Using detailed daily information covering 100 countries and an event-study approach, we estimate the short run effects of implementing Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) on the spread of the COVID-19 virus at the early stages of the pandemic. We study the impact of two NPIs -stay-at-home requirements and workplace closures- on three outcomes: daily residential and workplace mobility; the daily growth rate of cases; and the daily growth rate of fatalities. Acknowledging that we observe a mobility reduction in countries before they implemented NPIs, we find that immediately after NPIs were implemented, mobility declined by 0.2 standard deviation (SD), and two weeks afterwards it was down by 0.7 SDs. 25 days after the NPIs were implemented, the daily growth rate of cases and deaths was lower by 10% and 8.4% respectively. Our results reveal that between 53 and 72 percent of the reduction of the daily growth rate of cases and deaths associated with a reduction of mobility is caused by NPIs.

Active COVID-19 clusters in Santa Catarina, Brazil, and workplace mobility trends

The application of spatial analysis to the study of human epidemiological data has gained great momentum in the last two decades. This article approaches the scan statistic for the detection of spatial-temporal clusters of COVID-19 cases in the State of Santa Catarina, Brazil. The aim is to apply the scan statistic to identify active clusters, determining their location, size, and order (priority). Organization of the descriptive based included COVID-19 cases from March 1 to August 31, 2020, available in the Santa Catarina State Open Data Portal. The vector base of the municipal limits and mesoregions in Santa Catarina and the population estimates for 2020 were obtained from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) website. The workplace mobility trend covariable was obtained from the document COVID-19: Report on Community Mobility in Google. Execution of the statistic considered the discrete Poisson model, supported by the prospective approach. The study's results evidenced the procedure's capacity to demarcate clusters, identifying 17 active clusters with the response variable and 18 active clusters after inclusion of the covariable, distributed throughout the state and predominantly on the coast and the Western region. The primary cluster was in Southern Santa Catarina. The workplace mobility trend covariable moderately influenced 38.89% of the clusters. The method proved to be efficient for understanding the epidemic's spatial distribution. This characterizes the scan statistic as a tool to support the execution of actions by policymakers, prioritizing areas most affected by the disease.

479. Mobility Restrictions and COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak Control

BackgroundIn December 2009, a cluster of patients with pneumonia was reported in the city of Wuhan, capital of Hubei province in China, caused by a novel coronavirus: SARS-CoV-2.The epidemiological compartmental susceptible-exposed-infected-recovered (SEIR) model has been previously used during the initial wave of the H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2009. This study investigates whether the SEIR model, associated to mobility changes parameters, can determine the likelihood of establishing control over an epidemic in a city, state or country.MethodsThe critical step in the prediction of COVID-19 by a SEIR model are the values of the basic reproduction number (R0) and the infectious period, in days. R0 and the infectious periods were calculated by mathematical constrained optimization, and used to determine the numerically minimum SEIR model errors in a country, based on COVID-19 data until april 11th. The Community Mobility Reports from Google Maps (https://www.google.com/covid19/mobility/) provided mobility changes on april 5th compared to the baseline (Jan 3th to Feb 6th). The data was used to measure the non-pharmacological intervention adherence. The impact of each mobility component was made by logistic regression models. COVID-19 control was defined by R0 of the SEIR model in a country less than 1.0.Algorithm for the SEIR model applied to COVID-19 (initialization) Table 01: Algorithm for the SEIR model applied to COVID-19 (calculation of new COVID-19 cases day-by-day) ResultsResidential mobility restriction presented the higher logistic coefficient (17.7), meaning higher impact on outbreak control. Workplace mobility restriction was the second most effective measure, considering a restriction minimum of 56% for a 53% chance of outbreak control. Retail and recreation mobility presented 53%, and 86% respectively. Transit stations (96% and 54%) were also assessed. Park mobility restriction demonstrated the lowest effectiveness in outbreak control, considering that absolute (100%) restriction provided the lowest chance of outbreak control (46%).Table 2: The Community Mobility Reports from Google Maps: Mobility changes on April 5 compared to the baseline (5- week period; Jan 3–Feb 6, 2020): T_infectious and R0 obtained by using COVID-19 new cases day-by-day in each country, adjusted to the SEIR model by mathematical constrained optimization Logistic regression models to evaluate the chance of an epidemic control based on the non-pharmacological interventions adherence Simulation of the impact of the mobility component in the chance of outbreak control: analysis by using the logistic regression model summarized in Table 2 ConclusionResidential mobility restriction is the most effective measure. The degree to which mobility restrictions increase or decrease the overall epidemic size depends on the level of risk in each community and the characteristics of the disease. More research is required in order to estimate the optimal balance between mobility restriction, outbreak control, economy and freedom of movement.Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures

An Integrative and Sustainable Workplace Mobility Plan: The Case Study of Navantia-Cartagena (Spain)

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals have been the strategic aims of many interventions in society recently. Navantia has developed a Sustainable Workplace Mobility Plan motivated by Sustainable Development Goal 11, Sustainable cities. Navantia is a leading Spanish company in the design and construction of high technology military and civilian vessels. This project is focused on the Navantia facilities in Cartagena. A workplace mobility plan has been developed to encourage sustainable mobility, promoting access on foot, by bike, by scooter, and using public transport to travel to and from the company’s facilities. The methodology used is based on the European Guidelines for developing and implementing a sustainable urban mobility plan. Thus, the current accesses and their mobility characteristics have been studied in detail, and surveys have been conducted among the company’s employees. A diagnosis of the situation has been elaborated. To solve the identified problems, three sets of measures have been developed: (i) improved access measures; (ii) management of car park areas; and (iii) soft measures. The economic cost of all these measures has been estimated, as well as the related carbon savings. As a result, a complete sustainable workplace mobility plan has been designed from an integrated point of view to encourage sustainable mobility, not only for the company’s employees but also for all the inhabitants of Cartagena, to transform the city into a place with good quality of life now and in the future. This practical case can serve as a reference for other companies that want to foster sustainable mobility among their employees, even when they are subject to urban constraints.

Time dynamics of COVID-19

We apply tools from functional data analysis to model cumulative trajectories of COVID-19 cases across countries, establishing a framework for quantifying and comparing cases and deaths across countries longitudinally. It emerges that a country’s trajectory during an initial first month “priming period” largely determines how the situation unfolds subsequently. We also propose a method for forecasting case counts, which takes advantage of the common, latent information in the entire sample of curves, instead of just the history of a single country. Our framework facilitates to quantify the effects of demographic covariates and social mobility on doubling rates and case fatality rates through a time-varying regression model. Decreased workplace mobility is associated with lower doubling rates with a roughly 2 week delay, and case fatality rates exhibit a positive feedback pattern.

Socioeconomic Disparities in Community Mobility Reduction and COVID-19 Growth

ObjectiveTo examine differences in community mobility reduction and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outcomes across counties with differing levels of socioeconomic disadvantage. MethodsThe sample included counties in the United States with at least one SARS-CoV-2 case between April 1 and May 15, 2020. Outcomes were growth in SARS-CoV-2 cases, SARS-CoV-2–related deaths, and mobility reduction across three settings: retail/recreation, grocery/pharmacy, and workplace. The main explanatory variable was the social deprivation index (SDI), a composite socioeconomic disadvantage measure. ResultsAdjusted differences in outcomes between low-, medium-, and high-SDI counties (defined by tertile) were calculated using linear regression with state-fixed effects. Workplace mobility reduction was 1.75 (95% CI, -2.36 to -1.14; P<.001) and 3.48 percentage points (95% CI, -4.21 to -2.75; P<.001) lower for medium- and high-SDI counties relative to low-SDI counties, respectively. Mobility reductions in the other settings were also significantly lower for higher-SDI counties. In analyses adjusted for SARS-CoV-2 prevalence on April 1, medium- and high-SDI counties had 1.39 (95% CI, 0.85 to 1.93; P<.001) and 2.56 (95% CI, 1.77 to 3.34; P<.001) more SARS-CoV-2 cases/1000 population on May 15 compared with low-SDI counties, respectively. Deaths per capita were also significantly higher for higher-SDI counties. ConclusionCounties with higher social deprivation scores experienced greater growth in SARS-CoV-2 cases and deaths, but reduced mobility at lower rates. These findings are consistent with evidence demonstrating that economically disadvantaged communities have been disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Efforts to socially distance may be more burdensome for these communities, potentially exacerbating disparities in SARS-CoV-2–related outcomes.

Stock Prices, Lockdowns, and Economic Activity in the Time of Coronavirus

Stock prices and workplace mobility trace out striking clockwise paths in daily data from mid-February to late May 2020. Global stock prices fell 30 percent from 17 February to 12 March, before mobility declined. Over the next 11 days, stocks fell another 10 percentage points as mobility dropped 40 percent. From 23 March to 9 April, stocks recovered half their losses and mobility fell further. From 9 April to late May, both stocks and mobility rose modestly. This dynamic plays out across the 35 countries in our sample, with a few notable exceptions. We also find that stricter lockdown policies, both in-country and globally, drove larger declines in national stock prices conditional on pandemic severity, workplace mobility, and income support and debt relief policies. Looking more closely at the two largest economies, the pandemic had greater effects on stock market levels and volatilities in the U.S. than in China. Narrative evidence confirms the dominant – and historically unprecedented – role of pandemic-related developments for stock prices in both countries. The size of the global stock market crash in reaction to the pandemic is many times larger than a standard asset-pricing model implies.

Crime and coronavirus: social distancing, lockdown, and the mobility elasticity of crime

Governments around the world restricted movement of people, using social distancing and lockdowns, to help stem the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. We examine crime effects for one UK police force area in comparison to 5-year averages. There is variation in the onset of change by crime type, some declining from the WHO ‘global pandemic’ announcement of 11 March, others later. By 1 week after the 23 March lockdown, all recorded crime had declined 41%, with variation: shoplifting (− 62%), theft (− 52%), domestic abuse (− 45%), theft from vehicle (− 43%), assault (− 36%), burglary dwelling (− 25%) and burglary non-dwelling (− 25%). We use Google Covid-19 Community Mobility Reports to calculate the mobility elasticity of crime for four crime types, finding shoplifting and other theft inelastic but responsive to reduced retail sector mobility (MEC = 0.84, 0.71 respectively), burglary dwelling elastic to increases in residential area mobility (− 1), with assault inelastic but responsive to reduced workplace mobility (0.56). We theorise that crime rate changes were primarily caused by those in mobility, suggesting a mobility theory of crime change in the pandemic. We identify implications for crime theory, policy and future research.

Workplace mobility in Canadian urban agglomerations, 1996 to 2016: Have workers really flown the coop?

Whilst workplace mobility (i.e., working from a variety of locations) has become an area of study in its own right, and has increasingly gained media attention, little is known about how prevalent or novel it is. In this paper we use Census place of work data to obtain insights into the prevalence and growth of this phenomenon in Canada's ten largest Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs). These data do not capture all dimensions of workplace mobility, but are the best currently available to assess it population‐wide. We show that workplace mobility has increased modestly since 1996, and that it is particularly prevalent in sectors such as construction, and amongst less qualified workers. Knowledge workers, to the extent they are mobile, tend to work from home. These results do not capture fine‐grained mobility within the working day (which may indeed be increasing), but demonstrate that these finer grained mobilities have not fundamentally impacted the types of workplace that jobs are attached to.

Conceptualising and measuring the location of work: Work location as a probability space

There is currently considerable interest in workers performing tasks from a variety of workplaces, such as co-working spaces, transport-networks and cafés. However, it remains difficult to ascertain the extent to which this workplace mobility is altering urban economic geography, since most analyses of the location of economic activity in cities are based upon census-type data that assume a unique place of work for each worker. In this paper I propose a framework that extends the concept of place of work: work is probabilistically assigned to different types of workplace according to the proportion of work time spent in each. The limitations of census data are discussed and illustrated, after which the framework is operationalised in an exploratory survey. Census data suggest a modest increase in workplace mobility, with most work still taking place either at home or in a fixed workplace. The paper’s principal contribution is to explain these data’s limitations and show how work location can be operationalised as a probability space.

Stringency in Policy Responses to Covid-19 Pandemic and Social Distancing Behavior in Selected Countries

This paper investigates the relationships of government’s stringencies in policy measures to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic and “social distancing” behavior across countries. Amid coronavirus (nCovid-19) pandemic, the trending advice for “social distancing” has become one of the most popular yet contentious recommendations in many countries. Studies have shown that cities and states that had early and broad isolation and preventive measures had a 30% to 50% lower outbreak and fatality rates than other cities during the Spanish Flu nearly a century ago. This paper finds that the “social distancing” performance of communities significantly depends on the government’s policy stringency level. The countries with stricter government responses and measures have experienced higher compliance with “social distancing” advice, and hence experienced slower coronavirus growth rates than the countries with softer stringencies. Among the coronavirus hardest-hit countries, a 1.00 unit increase in government’s stringency to respond to the Covid-19 decreases 0.69 unit in people’s workplace mobility. For the same countries, 1.00 unit rise in government’s stringency contributes to 0.31 unit more “stay at home”. Among the studied 32 countries, a 1.00 unit increase in government stringency measure reduces 0.57 unit of workplace mobility among the working people. The countries with 1.00 unit more stringency level contribute to 0.25 unit more “stay-at-home.” This paper uses two sources of data: OxCGRT Stringency Index and Google’s community mobility data. The paper concludes that governments across the countries with more stringent policies to respond to Covid-19 pandemic could give rise to “social distancing” performance, which further contributes to curve the death tolls.

The Effect of Income Support Program on Workplace Mobility, COVID-19 Case and Mortality Growth

The Effect of Income Support Program on Workplace Mobility, COVID-19 Case and Mortality Growth

Modelling the relationships between teacher working conditions, job satisfaction and workplace mobility

Teacher shortages are a recurring problem in publicly funded schools, in part because of poor retention. Working conditions in schools are an important predictor of teacher job satisfaction and retention, yet research has so far made limited headway in identifying the specific aspects of the working environment which matter. This research uses representative data on state secondary school teachers in England in 2013 to derive an unusually rich set of working conditions variables. Regression analysis is used to model the relationships between working conditions, teacher job satisfaction and turnover intentions. The results show strong associations with the nature of school leadership, whether teachers have received training in the specific subjects they are assigned to teach and scope for career progression within the school. These results are robust to checks for common source bias. The study identifies ways in which schools can improve retention.

Mapping Workplace Neighborhood Mobility Among Sex Workers in an Urban Canadian Setting: Results of a Community-Based Spatial Epidemiological Study From 2010-2016.

Mobility among sex workers has been linked not only to improved economic and social opportunities, but also to concerns regarding displacement, criminalization, and violence. In 2014, new "end-demand" legislation criminalized new aspects of sex work in Canada (e.g., third-party advertising, purchasing) while leaving the sale of sex legal. Utilizing data from a longitudinal community-based cohort of women sex workers in Metro Vancouver (An Evaluation of Sex Workers Health Access [AESHA], 2010-2016), we used kernel density mapping to understand and identify geographic patterns of workplace neighborhood mobility (i.e., changing the primary neighborhood in which one worked in the last 6 months); multivariable logistic regression using generalized estimating equations was also used to model contextual (policing, violence, and safety) and individual correlates of workplace mobility among sex workers over the 6-year period, including potential changes in mobility patterns pre- and post-end-demand criminalization. A total of 543 sex workers were included in analyses, contributing 2,199 observations. A total of 402 (74.0%) experienced workplace neighborhood mobility during the study period. Neighborhood mobility was negatively correlated with age (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 0.98/year older, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.97, 0.99]) and positively correlated with homelessness (AOR = 1.43, 95% CI = [1.12, 1.82]), identifying as a gender/sexual minority (AOR = 1.31, 95% CI = [1.04, 1.70]), and servicing clients primarily outdoors (vs. informal indoor or in-call venues; AOR = 1.48, 95% CI = [1.21, 1.81]); police harassment (AOR = 1.19, 95% CI = [0.96, 1.48], p = .11) and changing one's neighborhood of work due to safety concerns (AOR = 1.37, 95% CI = [0.94, 2.00], p = .09) were both marginally correlated. Steps to promote safer working conditions for marginalized women in urban environments remain urgently needed, including shifts away from criminalized enforcement toward community-led initiatives and promoting access to safer indoor workspaces.

Regional Mobility and Spatial Inequality: Determinants of Spatial Labor Market Behavior Considering Firm- and Region-Specific Factors

Regional disparities exist between states as well as within countries. In the Federal Republic of Germany, as a result of reunification, there are still considerable regional differences in terms of economic conditions. Local economic and structural circumstances affect individual employment opportunities and can be a motive for migration. Based on rational-economic approaches, the article examines the spatial labor market behavior of full-time employees subject to social security contributions, taking into account individual, firm-specific and regional characteristics. Workplace mobility is analyzed as a job move between the macro regions of North, South and East Germany. For this purpose, a linked employer-employee dataset (LIAB) from the “Institute for Employment Research” is used, supplemented by regional structural indicators (INKAR) at the level of the spatial planning regions. The analyses using binary logistic regression models show that transregional mobility especially depends on individual characteristics such as age and qualifications. Regarding regional features, it can be seen that the emigration tendency of younger employees increases with the local level of unemployment. Overall, the results do not indicate that there is a single-track brain drain from structurally weak regions. Nevertheless, these regions face a problem in age-specific migration patterns. The outflow of young workers weakens structurally poor areas directly and permanently.

Radiology trainees forum survey report on workplace satisfaction, ESR education, mobility and stress level

ObjectivesThe Radiology Trainees Forum (RTF) of the European Society of Radiology (ESR) conducted a survey among radiologists in training to gather and evaluate data on workplace satisfaction, ESR educational initiatives, mobility of professionals and stress levels.MethodsA questionnaire was forwarded to radiologists in training across Europe. The subject of the questionnaire was related to: (1) the working place, (2) safety of the working environment, (3) satisfaction at the working place, (4) familiarity with educational initiatives within the ESR and (5) reasons and motivation for mobility. Results were obtained and analysed.ResultsInvitations to participate were sent by the ESR office to radiologists in training across Europe. A total of 1045 radiologists responded to the questionnaire; 77.8% were trainees and 22.2% were certified radiologists. Of the responders 65.3% considered the working place safe. Only 25.7% considered themselves involved in management, 43.9% would consider working in another country, and 52.3% were moderately satisfied with their working place. Of the responders 46.8% did not have any teaching responsibilities; 59.7% knew the European Diploma in Radiology (EDiR) and 69.7% were not aware of the content of the ESR European Training Curriculum (ETC).ConclusionThe level of training in aspects related to management safety and quality is low among trainees. The level of satisfaction at work is adequate but not sufficient. The degree of responsibility in training tasks is scarce. A small percentage is familiar with the ESR educational initiatives. As for the mobility the main reservation is lack of confidence in the training acquired.Main Messages• For satisfaction levels to improve, it is vital to include more creative aspects of the profession, such as research and teaching, in balance with the routine aspects of radiology.• Furthermore, a greater involvement of radiologists in patient care is also essential in radiology training.• To facilitate mobility, it is important to standardise training across European countries through universal programmes and training controls such as the EDiR and the ETC.

Labor under Fire: A History of the AFL-CIO since 1979 by Timothy Minchin

Labor under Fire: A History of the AFL-CIO since 1979 by Timothy Minchin

Ecological Influences on Employees' Workplace Sedentary Behavior: A Cross-Sectional Study.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between ecological factors and occupational sedentary behavior (SB). Cross-sectional online survey. Participants were employees recruited from a large, public university in the Southeastern United States from August to November 2016. The final sample included 527 (56% response rate) employees. Data were collected through an 87-item survey using previously validated scales that assessed occupational SB, perceived behavioral control, barrier self-efficacy, self-regulation strategies, organizational social norms, office environment, and worksite climate. One-way analysis of variance analyses were used to determine differences in occupational SB by demographic factors. A multivariate regression model was used to determine significant ecological determinants of occupational SB. Mean SB was 342.45 (standard deviation = 133.25) minutes. Significant differences in SB were found by gender, education, and employment classification. Barrier self-efficacy and workplace connectivity, which evaluates the spatial layout of the office setting that may impact mobility within the workplace, were significant predictors of SB in the multivariate model. Results from this study provide new information regarding the potential impact of workplace barriers and connectivity on occupational SB. The findings from this study support the inclusion of intervention modalities to minimize workplace barriers and increase workplace connectivity to increase workplace mobility and decrease SB.