Abstract

The aim of this article is to demonstrate the possible correlation between commitment to labor inclusion and actions to promote organizational equity during the economic crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of Latin American countries and their main trading partners. A cluster analysis was conducted to generate blocks of Latin American countries and their main trading partners. Subsequently, a Student’s t-test analysis was performed to identify whether there was a significant difference in terms of the labor equity and inclusion variable using data from the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2020, as well as from the Labor Inclusion Index of the United Nations Development Program’s Sustainable Development Goals Report 2021. No statistically significant information was found to validate the correlation between the results of the two blocks of countries, although it was possible to identify concrete efforts by some Latin American nations that have allowed them to reposition themselves in terms of equity despite the economic crisis. This contrasted with some trading partners that, despite their economic strength, have not been able to maintain a stable labor market for their citizens. The study yields very significant results that shed light on the post-pandemic reality of the labor market and the inclusion of women in the economic sphere of their countries. This provides a better understanding of how the gendered division of labor and the domestic and care role can be a determining factor for women to drop out, retrain, or reenter the labor market.