Which jobs are most at risk from the coronavirus shutdown?

Abstract

The immediate impact of the coronavirus shutdown is striking in its magnitude, its speed and its concentration on a small set of industries. My attempt to identify where the virus and the shutdown will have the biggest effect suggests that in February 2020 about 2.7 million workers were employed in the most exposed industries. And while it won’t be possible to know for sure until April 16 when we get data from the Bureau of Statistics on the labour force in March, I believe it’s reasonable to think the jobs of about 900,000 are already under threat.