Anxious-looking travellers stood in long queues at Johannesburg's international airport on Friday, desperate to squeeze onto the last flights to countries that had just shut their doors to South Africa.
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The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the euro area labour market
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the euro area labour market
Prepared by Robert Anderton, Vasco Botelho, Agostino Consolo, António Dias da Silva, Claudia Foroni, Matthias Mohr and Lara Vivian
1 Introduction
The euro area labour market has been severely hit by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and associated containment measures. Employment and total hours worked declined at the sharpest rates on record. Unemployment increased more slowly and to a lesser extent, reflecting the high take-up rate of job retention schemes and transitions into inactivity. The labour market adjustment occurred primarily via a strong decline in average hours worked. In addition, the labour force declined by about 5 million in the first half of 2020, which is half a million more than its increase between mid-2013 and the fourth quarter of 2019.