The pandemic has disrupted economic activity and worsened social problems in many countries. In Brazil, its impact has been especially severe. "The level of employment, defined as the number of people in work divided by the working-age population, fell below 50% in April 2020. It remained low until July when it bottomed out at 47%. This means over half the working-age population was unemployed," said Rogério Barbosa, a professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro's Institute for Social and Political Studies (IESP-UERJ) and a former researcher at the Center for Metropolitan Studies (CEM), one of FAPESP's Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers (RIDCs).