“Too shocked to search” The COVID-19 shutdowns’ impact on the search for apprenticeships

Abstract Even though the recession in Switzerland triggered by COVID-19 ultimately remained without consequences for apprenticeship market, significantly fewer contracts had been signed months of first shutdown 2020 than same previous year. Using daily search queries on national administrative platform vacancies from February until April 2021 as a proxy supply potential apprentices, we find temporal pattern that coincides perfectly with development contracts. Furthermore, analyses show initially very strong relationship between intensity politically imposed restrictions to fight pandemic and diminished over time, leading March was back at pre-pandemic level.