By Jessica DiNapoli

NEW YORK (Reuters] – More workers in the United States bought shares through stock buying plans for employees during the COVID-19 epidemic, according to a Rutgers University research.

According to the study, average worker participation in employee stock purchasing plans increased to 28% from 23% in Jan 2020. On Friday, the study’s results will be presented at Rutgers conference on stock ownership and worker equity.

According to the study, some of the financial market effects such as the COVID-19 epidemic on financial markets are responsible for the rise in shares. According to the research, 40 companies were analyzed.

According to the Computershare Investor Services Plc study, workers are more cautious and see participation in stock-purchase plans for employees as similar to savings accounts.

“As the pandemic progressed, workers also took into account their organization’s long-term financial stability before investing more of their hard-won salary,” Joo Han, a professor at Rutgers who authored the study, said in a statement.

Stock purchase plans offer discounts for employees who want to purchase shares of their employer. Study found that employees who receive greater stock discounts will be more likely to participate in the company’s stock purchase plans.

The study revealed that workers were more likely to buy stock from their employers when the trading environment was stable.

The pandemic caused a lot of retail investment to boom, which was partly due to trading apps. Robinhood Markets Inc (NASDAQ:), Reddit, and other social media websites. So-called “meme stock” includes AMC Entertainment (NYSE 🙂 Holdings Inc. and videogame retailer. GameStop Corp (NYSE): Shares gained more than 1000% due to Mom-and-Pop investors.