Data-driven Analysis of Remote Work in China during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This paper leverages online content to investigate teleworking forced due to the COVID-19 pandemic -- using China as a primary case study. Telecommuting has become popular since February 2020 primarily due to the pandemic, and people have been slowly returning to their office from May 2020. This study focuses on two time windows in the year 2020 to calculate the growth of different job sectors. Our results indicate the negative impact of teleworking in manufacturing industry, but shows that information technology-related industries are less affected by working from home. This paper also investigates the impact of COVID-19 on the stock market and discussed what plan of action the policy-makers should take to provide a good economic environment. In addition to the overall economic situation, the psychological situation of employees will affect the development of a given industry. Therefore, misinformation in certain Chinese social media channels is also a concern studied in this paper specifically examining the rumors and their latent topics. We hope that our work will initiate a dialogue and collaboration between scientists, policy makers and government officials to use these lessons and engage effectively for the betterment of society.