I analyze the heterogeneous impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on changes in the position in the labor market by education level and occupational group. I take advantage of the PNAD Contínua, a robust panel from 2012 to 2021 that tracks individuals in up to five consecutive quarters. By distinguishing formal and informal positions, I elaborate transition matrices and multinomial logit regressions to identify the impact of education on the likelihood of rotating to specific labor positions. I find that higher educated individuals are more likely to continue at formal employment and less educated people were more prone to transit to non-employment during the recession. Moreover, there is a decrease in movements towards formality and informality for all educational levels throughout the crisis. The results confirm the importance of, in particular, tertiary education as an attribute that helps ensuring jobs in turbulent economic conditions.