OECD Economic Outlook, Volume 2020 Issue 1
The OECD Economic Outlook is the OECD's twice-yearly analysis of the major economic trends and prospects for the next two years. The Outlook puts forward a consistent set of projections for output, employment, prices, fiscal and current account balances.
Coverage is provided for all OECD member countries as well as for selected non-member countries. This issue includes a general assessment of the macroeconomic situation, a series of notes on the macroeconomic and structural policy issues related to the COVID-19 outbreak and a chapter summarising developments and providing projections for each individual country.
Issue Note 5: Flattening the unemployment curve? Policies to support workers’ income and promote a speedy labour market recovery
This note analyses the roles of job-preserving measures, including short-time work schemes, and the unemployment insurance system, in supporting workers’ income and ensuring that employment rapidly rebounds as COVID-19-related shutdowns of non-essential activities are eased. Given large uncertainty about the longer-term consequences of the COVID-19 crisis for the reallocation of resources across industries and firms, the challenge is to preserve jobs that are viable in the medium term while allowing workers in distressed firms and industries to move to those with better growth prospects. Against this background, the note outlines a number of policy options to balance job preservation with reallocation by adjusting the parameters of existing policies as the COVID-19 crisis evolves.
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