Employment And Social Developments In Europe 2021

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ISBN 13 : 9789276215103
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (151 download)

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Download or read book Employment and Social Developments in Europe written by and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before the COVID-19 outbreak put Europe and the world under unprecedented public health, economic and social stress, 2020 had started with continuing positive trends in the EU. Despite the deceleration of economic growth relative to 2018, throughout 2019, the EU had the highest employment in history and the lowest unemployment levels on record, while living standards continued to improve and public finances were consolidated. On a global scale, the EU has continued to be a champion of employment, climate action and social rights, affording its populations high levels of social fairness, reinforced by intra-societal solidarity provided by strong social welfare systems. Nonetheless, important weaknesses remained, such as still relatively high youth unemployment, gender gaps, as well as disparities in social welfare and protection systems. Though low by international standards, income inequality had been hardly reduced for years while in-work poverty had risen in a majority of Member States. Starting as a worldwide health emergency, with a significant cost in human lives and impact on the health of the EU population, COVID-19 has developed into the biggest global socio-economic crisis since the Second World War. In the EU as elsewhere, the crisis exposed and exacerbated existing vulnerabilities while revealing the fragility of some of its greatest achievements, including the free movement of people, goods and services. The impact of the pandemic on both economic output and employment is expected to be more severe than that of the last recession. The rise in unemployment in 2020 resulting from the sharp contraction of economic output will likely be contained, thanks to the Short-Time Work schemes that over forty million people across the EU have benefitted from as well as by other support schemes to firms, workers and the self employed. Nevertheless, large parts of the population still fear that they may lose their jobs and livelihoods. The employment and social impacts of the pandemic have been unequal. While the majority of the population was forced to cope with lockdowns and social distancing for weeks, workers in certain sectors (notably healthcare and personal care, transport, agriculture, food services, accommodation, leisure and culture) were subject to higher contagion risk and/or higher income losses. Those with non-standard employment status (especially trainees and platform and temporary workers, including migrants) or a low skill level (especially those working in client-facing services) have been more exposed to job loss. Young people in particular have been disproportionately affected by disruptions in their education and training (especially those who do not benefit from digital remote educational solutions) and by difficult school-to-work transitions in the new economic context, while young workers have been often over-represented in the sectors most adversely impacted. The uncoordinated closures of borders at the beginning of the crisis hurt the Single Market and hit the incomes of EU mobile - cross border and posted - workers as well as third-country immigrants particularly hard and prevented flows from and to third countries in key occupations. Without public support measures or alternative income sources, such workers could suffer much greater income losses than, for instance, workers who can work remotely. Non-standard workers also tend to have less comprehensive social protection coverage, having poorer access to healthcare services and lower chances of income replacement if they are sick. As the pandemic seems to hit disproportionally hard those who were already at higher social risk before the crisis, it is likely to amplify pre-existing inequalities and lead to an increase in relative poverty rates.