Addressing the issue of a possible second wave of Covid-19, Steven Kapsos, Head of the Data Production and Analysis Unit at the International Labour Organization, stressed the role of testing and tracing in reducing job loss during a pandemic, in a speech to Committee on Employment and Social Affairs MEPs on Monday 22 June.
“Our analysis shows that investing in case identification and testing, isolation and contact tracing appears to be a very powerful tool to limit the impact of the pandemic on workers and firms”, the expert assured before MEPs. “We find the testing and tracing is associated with the reduction in working hour losses, by as much as 50%”, he added.
Mr Kapsos explained that this approach limited extremely restrictive measures (such as national lockdown) and limited the loss of jobs and hours worked, as demonstrated in South Korea. It allowed workers to have a much better understanding of the risk. This approach avoided disruptions in production processes and left more room for companies to organise themselves. Moreover, according to the expert, this strategy would be inexpensive, less than 0.1% of national GDP.
The figures presented by Mr Kapsos speak for themselves: Europe would have lost the equivalent of 26 million full-time jobs (40 hours a week) in working hours during the first half of 2020. Globally, the most affected sectors would be wholesale and retail trade, manufacturing, hotels and restaurants, and lastly, real estate.
Mr Kapsos also explained that the unemployment figures in Europe were very far from reality, as they did not include partial unemployment situations. In general, the expert considered that the European Union had a much better social resilience than other regions of the world, thanks to its social systems. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)