Due to the pandemic, the main European countries have launched unprecedented measures to support the labor market, which have been fundamental for the stability of the system; however, it must these interventions are also limited in time, so as to limit the undesirable effects. This, in summary, is the opinion expressed by the European Central Bank in its latest monthly bulletin. A position that alarms millions of workers in Italy too, where the ban on firing will end at the end of March and the repercussions on employment levels will be inevitable.
“Measures aimed at maintaining jobs reached unprecedented levels in the first months after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore play an important role in explaining labor market developments during this period,” write the economists of the ECB, recalling that in April, when the first lockdown measures were in force, restrictions on working hours had been imposed in most of the eurozone countries. If the analysis is limited to the main four countries of the currency area, the restrictions affected 15% of all employees in Germany, 34% in France, 30% in Italy and 21% in Spain.
“Although these levels have decreased since then, they still remain high – continues the bulletin – It is expected that, in the fourth quarter of 2020, the number of workers affected by the measures aimed at maintaining jobs increases following the new lockdown measures".
The ECB then underlines that “measures aimed at maintaining employment help to keep employment stable in the short term, but it is important that they are planned in such a way as to limit undesirable effects. For those reasons their duration should be limited in time: in order not to hinder the necessary economic restructuring, while remaining in place for a period long enough to preserve productive jobs that could otherwise be lost".
