Coronavirus: Dealing with post-pandemic mass unemployment - 6 Minute English

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from

BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.

And I'm Sam.

You and I are lucky, Sam, because

we can do our jobs remotely,

working from home. There

are some downsides, though - like not

being able to meet up

with friends or share ideas

with colleagues.

And going out for lunch!

But the coronavirus pandemic has caused

millions of people to lose

their job and forced thousand

more out of work temporarily with no idea

if their job will still be there when they

return.

For those daily workers without

savings to pay the rent and

feed their families it has

been especially stressful. Each job loss

is a potential personal tragedy.

In this programme, we'll be assessing the

post-Covid job landscape

and asking whether a radical

new approach is needed to prevent

global mass unemployment.

We'll be asking whether one of the

world's smallest - and

richest - countries, Denmark,

might hold the answer.

And of course, we'll be learning some new

vocabulary as well. But first it's time for

our quiz question. One man who knows

a lot about jobs is Brad Smith,

president of Microsoft,

a company employing over 150 thousand

workers. He's made gloomy

predictions about the number

of people out of work - but how many

people does he predict will be left

unemployed this

year as a result of the

coronavirus pandemic? Is it:

a) one quarter of a billion people?, b) one

third of a billion people?, or c) half

a billion people?

Wow, those numbers do really look

gloomy! I'll say b) one third

of a billion people

unemployed around the world.

OK, Sam, we'll come back to that later.

Now, mass unemployment - millions

of people losing

their jobs due to the Covid pandemic - has

left the world facing an enormous

jobs challenge.

Elisabeth Reynolds, of the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology, is author

of the report 'Work

of the Future'. Here she is talking to BBC

World Service programme,

Business Daily, about

the current situation:

Well, I think in the short term it does

feel like we are not yet in

a place where we can

talk about recovery and rebuilding

completely - we're still gonna

see the ramifications,

the impact and the ripple effect of all

this for months to come.

We use the expressions, 'in the long term'

and 'in the short term' to talk

about what will

happen over a long or short period of

time. In the short term, - over

a short period of

time - Elisabeth thinks it's too early

to talk about a jobs recovery.

She also warns that we haven't yet

experienced the full impact or

ramifications of the pandemic.

Like throwing a stone into water, these

consequences create

a ripple effect - a situation where

one event causes a series of effects

which spread and produce further effects.

According to Elisabeth, the problem is

that many of the government

measures put in place

to support jobs are not sustainable

in the long term. She says

more radical change is

needed.

Of course the big question is - how?

One proposed solution is

the Danish model. This balances

citizens' rights and duties.

Denmark provides one of the world's

most generous unemployment payouts

but in return citizens

are expected to commit to any job or

training the government thinks

would be beneficial.

Jacob Kirkegaard, senior fellow at

the Peterson Institute in Washington,

is himself a Dane.

Here he explains to BBC Business Daily

how the model works:

It's very easy to hire and fire people in

Denmark - it doesn't cost

you anything and

you don't have sort of a guaranteed job

for life once you

get a permanent contract, which

is the situation in many other continental

European countries... so

it combines labour

market flexibility with employment

security... namely the idea that people,

if they lose

their job, they know that they can find

another job even if that requires

them to pick up

new skills ... because that upskilling - or

reskilling - is going to be made available

to them, partly through very lavish

government subsides.

Denmark enjoys labour flexibility because

it's easy for bosses

to hire and fire - employ

someone and release them from

employment, meaning there's

no such thing as a job for

life - one that you can stay

in all your working life.

But citizens also have the security of

lavish - generous and

expensive - benefits, and the

government will also pay for worker

upskilling - training to learn

new skills making them

better at their jobs...

...and thereby preventing unemployment -

which reminds me of your

quiz question, Neil.

Yes, I asked you how many people were

predicted to lose their jobs

to the Covid pandemic.

And I said b) one third of a billion

Well, fortunately it's the slightly lower,

but still worrying, figure of one quarter

of a billion people.

We've been discussing predictions of

mass unemployment in the

short term - or over a

short time period, caused by the

coronavirus pandemic. It also

seems we will be experiencing

the ripple effects - series of

consequences, of the virus

for a long time to come.

One solution to mass unemployment may

be the Danish model, were

the power to hire or fire

- employ someone or make them

unemployed - means there

are not many jobs for life - jobs you

can do all your working life.

But lavish - expensive and generous -

benefits from the government,

who also pay for upskilling

or training in new skills, means that

Danish unemployment is rarely

out of control.

That's all we have time for, but come back

soon for more trending

topics and useful vocabulary

here at 6 Minute English from

BBC Learning English. Bye for now!

Bye!