Trade Publication Article

The Post-Pandemic BRAVE New World

Sandbu, Martin

2020

Overview

Workers in most manual service jobs-hospitality and tourism, delivery, retail, and basic care-had long been getting a rougher deal, which worsened in the pandemic. Because they require physical proximity, these are the jobs most exposed to either lockdowns (when judged nonessential) or contagion (when essential). [...]the growth of a \"precariat\" of service workers-those with insecure employment and income and ill served by public services-is a principal reason why shockingly many people in the world's richest countries have exceedingly thin financial buffers. Workers in sectors relying on low-paid and precarious work, hit disproportionately hard by the pandemic, were also less equipped to absorb such a shock to begin with. [...]even unprecedented government steps to protect incomes have generally been insufficient to offset the disproportionate damage to those already worse off. [...]the pandemic is likely not only to have reinforced chronic economic polarization, but to have intensified public awareness of it as a problem.

• Publisher: International Monetary Fund
• Subject: Coronaviruses / COVID-19 / Economic impact / Global economy / Labor market / Productivity