Life within four walls: work and sociability in times of confinement.

Summary To what extent does the Covid-19 disrupt our daily lives? How is the French population experiencing the confinement? To what extent are social inequalities exacerbated and social cohesion threatened? The CoCo project provides some answers to these topical questions by comparing living conditions in France before and after the blockade. This is the third preliminary report in the series. We analyze here how French society coped with the first 6 weeks of the lockdown, especially with regard to changes in working conditions and social life. The French working population was divided into 3 thirds: one third of workers continued to go to work, another third teleworked while the others stopped working. Women with a young child more frequently stopped working. Telecommuters are in the upper-middle segment of the income distribution. Conversely, working outside the home is for the lower end of the income distribution. The working conditions of teleworkers are better than for others. Teleworkers want to continue this experience. The division of domestic labor is more egalitarian in households where the woman works at home. Men take little part in education activities. The strong growth in the use of social networks and neighborhood relationships has compensated for the decline in sociability. The contagiousness of the virus was initially linked to geography, it is now dependent on employment conditions. People who had to travel to their place of work were more affected. Levels of perceived well-being declined at the start of containment, but have returned to and even exceeded pre-crisis levels.