Giorgos Argitis
Short-time-working (STW) schemes have been key components of responses to the pandemic in Europe. Such schemes however have two major drawbacks, making them inadequate to the employment crisis caused by Covid-19 and the development challenges of our times.
First, STW represents a ‘defensive’ labour-market intervention: it aims to preserve, not
create, jobs. Full implementation would at best imply the return of employment to pre-pandemic levels.
Nasos Koratzanis
Even this, though, is uncertain. The underlying logic, which is contested, is that labour demand crucially depends on labour cost. Several other factors are disregarded—such as consumer demand or firms’ profit expectations and financial situations—which equally affect job creation, especially in times of uncertainty.