Main content

Covid unemployment: A new crisis?

How does surging unemployment complicate the global response to the pandemic?

Millions have been left without work as the coronavirus pandemic continues to devastate economies across the globe. This week, there’s been a sharp rise in the unemployment rate in Britain. This follows recent increases in other European countries. The International Labour Organisation has warned the pandemic is having a β€œdevastating and disproportionate” impact on youth employment. In the United States, unemployment remains above 10 percent in black and Hispanic communities. After India’s lockdown ended, many living in cities have found their old jobs gone - with former office workers, builders, drivers and factory workers left scrambling to find alternative employment. But analysts warn that the longer the crisis goes on, the more jobs simply won’t return - replaced, they say, by automation or artificial intelligence solutions that don’t get sick and don’t need to socially distance. And while this trend existed before Covid, there are signs the virus has brought forward an employment challenge many governments had hoped to address years down the line. So how can governments minimise job losses, help retrain those whose past careers have gone, and make sure younger workers are prepared for the jobs of the future - all during a time of reduced revenue from taxation and ballooning deficits? Dan Damon and a panel of experts discuss what should be done about rising unemployment in the age of Covid-19?

Available now

53 minutes

Last on

Sat 19 Sep 2020 03:06GMT

Contributors


Jeffrey Miron - The Department of Economics at Harvard University and Director of Economic Studies at 'The Cato Institute'

Betsey Stevenson - Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of MichiganΜύ

Tim Jackson - Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity at the University of Surrey

Steve Keen - Honorary Research FellowΜύat University College London and author of 'Can We Avoid Another Financial Crisis'

Μύ

Also featuring ...

Daniel Susskind - Fellow in Economics at Balliol College, Oxford University and author of 'A World Without Work: Technology, Automation and How We Should Respond'

Μύ

Μύ

Photo

An employee prepares bottles of beer and cider as she restocks a sales display inside a Naturalia organic foods grocery store operated by Casino Group, in Bretigny-sur-Orge by Reuters


Broadcasts

  • Fri 18 Sep 2020 09:06GMT
  • Fri 18 Sep 2020 23:06GMT
  • Sat 19 Sep 2020 03:06GMT

The Real Story Podcast

Subscribe via your favourite podcast app...

Podcast