The Covid-19 crisis and the resulting slump in economic output in the first six months of 2020 are leaving deep scars on the European labour market. The high level of uncertainty caused by the crisis has impacted both patterns of household consumption and the willingness of companies to invest and continues to do so going forward. Demand for both goods and (tourism) services has plummeted. This has been accompanied by a decline in the availability of work on the European labour market with the number of actual hours worked in the second quarter 2020 14 index points below the level in 2006, and 15 points below the level of the second quarter 2019.
Table 1: Index of total actual hours worked (reference 2006=100) in the main job in the member states of the PES Network: 2nd quarter 2019 and 2nd quarter 2020 and change in index points
Note: No data is available for Germany
Source: Database – Eurostat lfsi_ahw_q, last update 7.10.2020
Figure 1: Index of total actual hours worked in the main job in the EU-27 by sex (2006=100): Comparison Q2 2019 and Q2 2020
Source: Database – Eurostat lfsi_ahw_q, last update 7.10.2020
To prevent unemployment, almost all member states have implemented or adapted short-time work schemes which provide for a reduction of working hours of up to 100% in line with developments on the national labour markets. A number of member states have also created the legal basis for firms to temporarily lay off employees with a return option or a re-employment obligation.
“Absences from Work” as shown in the EUROSTAT database is defined as: persons who are employed and have a formal attachment to the job. Examples of such a formal attachment are salaries, wages AND an assurance of a return to work. The European Labour Force Survey lists holidays, own illness, short-term working and temporary lay-offs as grounds for such absences. Workers who have been temporarily laid off are classified as employed if they have an assurance of a return to work within a period of three months or receive at least 50% of their wage or salary from their employer.
In the second quarter of 2020, approximately 40.9 million persons between the ages of 20 and 64 were temporarily absent from work for the reasons specified, more than twice as many as in the comparison period of the previous year. More than 50% of absences were due to lay-offs as a result of short-time working or similar reasons.
Figure 3: Absences from work in the EU-27 according to reasons: Comparison 2Q 2019 and Q2 2020
Source: Database – Eurostat lfsi_abs_q, last update 7.10.2020
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