Introduction:

The great lockdown crisis triggered by the COVID 19 pandemic is provoking a great economic impact such as falling production and job losses. The objective of this article is to analyze the impact of the health emergency on employment and production, as well as the digitization strategies adopted by companies located in the state of Guanajuato, in order to have a first approach in the study of this phenomenon.

Method:

A quantitative investigation was carried out. In the first stage, statistical information on production and employment in Mexico for the period from January 2019 to October 2020 was collected and analyzed. In the second stage, the Survey on the Impact on Business Activity (ESIAE) of the COVID-19 was designed and applied to companies located in Guanajuato; convenience sampling was used.

Results:

Statistical data show a significant fall in both production and employment. And this is consistent with the results obtained by the ESIAE, the surveyed companies showed a significant decrease both in their income and in the number of jobs, with the exception of those belonging to sectors that carry out activities classified as essential. Among the digitization strategies that they have put into practice, we find, home office, commercialization of their products or services through Marketplace platforms.

Discussion and Conclusion:

Our initial hypothetical assumption that the pandemic is accelerating digitization and that companies will need to hire specialists to implement it was not fulfilled. The positions that companies have created are traditional and the digitization strategies implemented are focused on the home office and commercialization. The results obtained in the survey cannot be generalized; however, they support the proposition of the following working hypothesis: digitization strategies and the type of required jobs depend on both the sector to which they belong, and the technological complexity of the product or service provided. For future research it is recommended to expand the sample and apply the survey by sectors; it is also necessary to carry out case studies that allow a better understanding of this phenomenon.

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