Unemployment since COVID-19

Unemployment has soared in the wake of COVID-19 with Canada, the USA and Spain faring particularly badly. Government schemes in some countries are protecting millions of jobs - but are they simply delaying the inevitable and masking what will happen once schemes are wound down?

Government schemes, such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme in the UK, have protected millions of jobs around the world during the pandemic. In spite of these efforts, unemployment has risen sharply in many countries. In the USA, for example, the unemployment rate rose from 3.6% to 8.4% between January and August 2020. 

In the UK, unemployment has increased only slightly during the crisis, from 3.9% to 4.5%. However, substantial job losses are anticipated once government support is wound down. Companies such as BP, British Airways and Marks & Spencer have already announced that they will be making thousands of job cuts.

Similar rises in unemployment are likely in countries such as Italy and France, which have so far experienced only modest increases. Government schemes are also protecting jobs in those counties, likely masking the true levels of unemployment once support is inevitably rolled back.