During April 2020, the first full month after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, more than 20 million U.S. workers lost employment as businesses closed or reduced hours [1]. These job losses were not distributed equally. People with at most a high school education were twice as likely to lose jobs as those with college degrees (17.8% vs. 8.8%) [2]. This surge in unemployment, combined with inflation, had wide-ranging economic repercussions for U.S. households, among them housing insecurity, food insecurity and insufficiency, and reduced access to healthcare.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of social safety net programs were (and continue to be) in place to assist households with job loss or low incomes. Primary components of these programs include financial, food, and healthcare assistance. Major financial assistance programs are unemployment insurance [UI] and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families [TANF]. Food assistance is covered by Supplementary Nutritional Assistance Programs [SNAP] and, for school-aged children, free or low-cost breakfast and lunch at school. For low-income households, Medicaid provides medical (and in some states, dental) benefits for adults and both medical and dental insurance for children. Additional large-scale benefits cover specific populations: examples include Medicare; the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP); Supplemental Security Income (SSI); and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). However, the unprecedented, sudden job losses in the spring of 2020, combined with increased food prices and disruptions to crucial school-based food programs during school closures, markedly worsened the stress on this social safety net, where existing gaps led to inadequate coverage for many families even before the pandemic [2].

To ease economic hardship during the pandemic, the U.S. Congress passed a series of relief measures that included direct payments, expansions to unemployment insurance, and measures designed to bolster housing security, food security, and healthcare access. Major measures, summarized elsewhere [3, 4], included the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of March 2020; Coronavirus Response Consolidated Appropriations Act (CRCA) of December 2020; and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) of March 2021.

Despite the beneficial effects of these new economic relief measures, such as a decrease in child poverty [5], many families found themselves in precarious economic positions, particularly during the first year of the pandemic. Lower-income workers (those in households earning approximately $40,000 or less) experienced the greatest job losses; an August 2020 survey found that only 3% of upper income respondents but nearly one-third (32%) of lower-income respondents reported having trouble meeting rent or mortgage payments [6]. A longitudinal survey found that housing instability peaked in fall 2020, with 7.3% of participants reporting that a household member was forced to move due to eviction or foreclosure, and 11.8% that a household member was unable to pay rent or mortgage in full [7]. The authors note the roles of historical housing discrimination and resulting generational wealth inequities; housing hardship was particularly pronounced among Black and Hispanic respondents. Gaps in food security were reflected by an almost 50% increase in food assistance obtained from food banks and pantries in 2020 [4], although some unmet needs may have been short-term [8].

Along with adult employment, employment among young people declined early in the pandemic. Youth work for a variety of reasons. These include monetary compensation (for pocket money; to assist with long-term household expenses by saving for large purchases such as vehicles or college tuition, or, less commonly, to contribute directly to household income); gaining work experience; developing interpersonal skills; and more [9]. Overall, the number of workers in this age group dropped from 5.4 million in February 2020 to 3.3 million in April 2020 but then rebounded past 5 million by October 2020 [10]. Unemployment among workers ages 16–24 reached nearly 25% in spring 2020 [11]; this figure reflects in part over-representation of young workers in service-sector industries most likely to have closed or reduced hours [12]. In 2019, leisure and trade comprised almost 40% and retail trade nearly 20% of employment among 16–19-year-olds [13].

These economic stressors affected family life, including the lives of adolescents. While studies have examined effects of parental job loss during the pandemic on household financial stress and resulting impacts on adolescent mental health [14] and child abuse and maltreatment [15], few, if any, have examined the economic impact of changes in student employment status. The Adolescent Behaviors and Experience Study (ABES), a one-time online survey administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from January 2021 to June 2021, included questions about employment status and job loss among high school students and their parents. The current study examines associations between the employment status of the parent or guardian, the high school student, and the dyad before and early in the pandemic and two measures that may be associated with economic insecurity: housing instability and food insufficiency.

This analysis of associations between employment status before and early in the COVID-19 pandemic and measures of household economic insecurity highlights the roles high school student and parental employment play in household economic security and reveals gaps in the social safety net. Parental job loss was experienced by more than one in four students, and the association of this loss with both adverse economic outcomes we examined (housing instability, food insufficiency) suggests that increased social benefits early in the pandemic did not fully offset the impact of these job losses. A new finding of our research is that student employment appears to play a role in food sufficiency.

Of the economic outcome metrics, housing was most strongly related to parental employment. The prevalence of housing instability among households with parents not employed before the pandemic was threefold that of households where parents lost jobs and fivefold that of households where parents retained jobs. Pandemic-era housing supports may have partially mitigated the effects of job loss. In spring 2020, the CARES Act provided protections for most tenants in federally-subsidized or federally-backed housing, including limits on evictions and fees for not paying rent on time, and the U.S. Congress issued a 120-day eviction moratorium. The 2021 ARP included emergency aid for renters who were behind on payments and a Homeowners’ Assistance Fund for homeowners behind on mortgage and utility payments. The ARP also included aid for families and individuals recently homeless or at risk of homelessness. However, our finding of increased housing instability among students who experienced parental job loss indicates that pandemic relief programs were not fully protective in the housing domain.

Unlike housing instability, food insufficiency was sensitive to both parental and student job loss. Households with pre-pandemic parental non-employment were only slightly more likely than households with parental job loss to experience food insufficiency; both groups had a statistically elevated prevalence of food insufficiency compared to households where parents retained their jobs. In the United States, food insecurity (indicating more severe deprivation than food insufficiency) was 10.5% in 2019 and more than doubled in the first months of the pandemic; the adverse impact was particularly strong among Black and Latinx families [3]. Resulting increased reliance on charitable food assistance [4], along with operational challenges, created gaps in meeting patrons’ needs. In a study following adults with household incomes below $75,000 from April-November 2020, 37.1% of those who lost jobs reported food insecurity at least once, although food insecurity was lower among those who received UI [19]. Some pandemic-relief programs specifically addressed food insecurity. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCR) increased access to food aid programs and, in some cases, the allotment. The ARP included a 15% increase in SNAP benefits through September 2021. The association between parental job loss and food insufficiency we observed likely reflects that these benefits did not completely compensate for the combined effects of job-related income reductions and marked inflation affecting groceries and other essentials.

The association between student job loss and food insufficiency may reflect both income reductions and other factors. Employed students may use some of their income to purchase food, either contributing to food available at home or buying foods aligning with their preferences. In addition, some students who work in food-related jobs access free or low-cost food at work and might thus rely less on food access at home; student job loss would end this access. Evaluating this hypothesis would entail knowing the type of jobs students held before or during the pandemic, but that information was not collected. Educational disruptions also affected student access to food. Before the pandemic, free and reduced-price breakfast and lunch were provided at school based on household income or on the income distribution of the school or district. In March 2020, the federal government expanded the free meal program to cover all students. When schools closed, some students lost access to school-provided food, although many districts and jurisdictions pivoted to distributing free food outside of schools and at other centralized locations [18]. However, in some areas, lack of transportation limited access to this resource. Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer, also designed to replace school meals [20], may have provided some relief.

Despite multiple economic stabilizing measures—extensions to unemployment coverage (including inclusion of independent contractors), emergency relief payments, housing protection measures and food relief,—parental job loss early in the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with increases in the indicators of economic instability we examine here. In addition, student job loss was associated with increased food insufficiency. The finding that the social safety net did not adequately compensate for pandemic-era job loss may reflect, in part, that public benefits can be difficult to access and maintain [3]. Lack of familiarity with the systems can create barriers for families new to applying for benefits, and enrolling in programs may have been delayed by closed or partially staffed benefits offices early in the pandemic. Some newly unemployed parents might have had limited savings but not yet been eligible for benefits. In addition, concerns about immigration status have been noted as a barrier for enrollment [4]. UI eligibility is lower among workers below 100% of the federal poverty level who do not meet work history requirements, are self-employed, or lack legal authorization to work [2]. Our findings that some students whose parents retained jobs nevertheless experienced these adverse economic outcomes during the pandemic, albeit at lower levels compared to students whose parents were previously not employed or lost jobs, suggests that for some households, wage increases and relief payments may not have fully offset financial stressors such as inflation.

The ABES survey was unique among COVID-19 research efforts in capturing employment status and status changes for not only parents but also high school students. This inclusion facilitated assessment of the role of student employment in some measures of household economic security. Other strengths include the rapid design and administration of the survey, which enabled collection of national data on a wide range of adolescent behaviors and experiences fairly early in the COVID-19 pandemic, when many economic and other effects were pronounced.

Our study has limitations. The survey’s primary focus was the behavior and experiences of adolescents, with limited information about economic experiences. The new finding that student employment is associated with food security suggests the need to better understand the role of student work in household economics. Information gaps related to employment, which was not the primary focus of the survey, hinder interpretation of some findings.

Students who did not work before the pandemic and whose parents retained jobs had among the lowest prevalence of all adverse economic outcome metrics. This finding may reflect privileged economic positions of some families before the pandemic, but the survey did not collect pre-pandemic household income or savings data (adolescents may not know this information), so accounting for pre-pandemic household financial security was not possible. The survey did not ask why students chose to work (to help meet household expenses vs. for pocket money or personal savings goals) or not to work (income not needed; desire to focus solely on schoolwork; lack of transportation to job). Some parent and student job loss might reflect voluntary job exits among persons with ample economic resources. Family structure is relevant to these choices but was not elicited in the survey. Some parental job loss may reflect a parent leaving a job to care for children when schools closed or switched to remote learning; economic impacts of this decision would vary with household expenses and savings, whether the household included another adult who retained a job, and the percentage of household income previously contributed by each adult. The timing and duration of job loss before and during the pandemic, and whether the parent or student who lost a job was subsequently reemployed, were not captured. Pandemic-related closures in the United States began in March 2020, so by the time a student took the survey, parents and students may have been unemployed for anywhere from 1 day to over a year.

The outcome variables also entail limitations. McKinnon et al. [17], following 42 USC CHAPTER 119, SUBCHAPTER VI, Part B: Education for Homeless Children and Youths [21], categorized students who reported they slept “somewhere else” in the past 30 days as stably housed, although some students selecting this option might have been unstably housed; thus, housing instability may be underestimated. Krause et al. [18] note that self-reported hunger is a non-validated proxy measure for food and nutrition insecurity. The current report references this metric as food insufficiency, but definitions of food insufficiency and insecurity vary and are more robust if they reference finances. In addition, the respondents were adolescents who may have been experiencing rapid growth and frequent hunger. Reduced availability of certain foods due to supply chain disruptions could also have affected perceived availability of food in the house.

General limitations of the ABES data described elsewhere [16] also pertain to this research. ABES data are representative of students enrolled in schools but not all U.S. adolescents, although 95% of youth attend school. As among adults, social desirability or response bias may be present, despite measures to protect student privacy. As well, directionality and temporality cannot be determined for this cross-sectional survey; the survey was administered at different points during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the design precludes comparisons by completion date. The overall response rate was 18%.

Finally, while our demographic results and previous research reflect higher levels of food insufficiency among students who are LGB or other/questioning, and earlier research reported some of the highest levels of parental job loss among Asian students [18], we were unable to present results reflecting detailed categories of sexual orientation and race/ethnicity due to statistical reporting requirements, limiting identification of some populations with high prevalence of adverse economic impacts.

Overall, these findings confirm expectations that parental employment is key to household economic security, but also suggest a role for adolescent employment. While many educational losses during the pandemic are attributed to school closures or remote schooling, the impact of increased housing instability and food insufficiency has not been fully appreciated. Previous analyses of ABES data have noted the adverse effects of these economic events on schoolwork, health-related behaviors, mental health, and the likelihood of experiencing violence [17, 18, 22]. Given these observations and the literature on adverse effects of unstable housing on adolescents before the pandemic [22, 23] both pre-pandemic housing instability and the elevated prevalence of this adverse outcome associated with parental job loss are concerning.

Our finding that household food security may depend in part on the labor of high school students highlights the need to better understand the role of student employment in all aspects of household economic stability. Researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the National Center for Health Statistics have developed a set of 21 cognitivelytested questions about youth and work for deployment on surveys, including one about respondent’s primary reason for working, with a response option indicating the need to contribute to household income [24]. Including these questions in future surveys could advance understanding of effects of student employment, including equity implications of the complex relations among adolescent work (drivers, type, and extent), school outcomes, and future economic position. Collection of information about household income and assets is also key.

While this study focuses on pre-pandemic and early pandemic-era economic concerns, these issues remain salient, despite the return to full employment. The child poverty rate, as measured by the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which accounts for some government programs for low-income families, rose from 5.2% in September 2021 to 12.4% in September 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau [25]. New and ongoing economic challenges, including increased gaps in the social safety net with the end of Public Health Emergency supplements, highlight the need for additional research on how these programs, as well as both adult and adolescent employment, affect household economics.