Holistic labour market policies will be needed to support the transition of the cohort of individuals whose employment has been supported by government-funded furlough schemes or through other emergency support measures. In the coming year these schemes will have to give way to other, less temporary policy measures.

With a significant rise in unemployment in the COVID-19 context and risk of further expansion of those figures, the labour market will benefit form a new cohort of policies which support workers’ income and health needs in the short term, but also power their re-allocation to new jobs and professions in the short- to medium-term.

Job creation measures such as funding small and medium-sized enterprises and new entrepreneurial clusters, as well as creating a cohort of new, quality-focused apprenticeships collectively focused on the professions of the future, could further ease the transition to the new labour market.

Individual efforts to undertake an investment in mid-career reskilling and upskilling can be motivated by government programmes but also by employers’ commitments to training, fair wage practices and merit-based management practices. These behaviours by firms can signal to workers who are exploring both short-cycle and fundamental training that their efforts will not be wasted, and they will be rewarded on the basis of investments they make in their human capital.

A revival in the development of human capital and the functioning of labour markets across economies requires focused efforts to renew training systems across various age and experience cohorts, with an emphasis on the skills needed for emerging jobs. This update is urgently needed in secondary education to ensure that future generations of young people enter the labour market with job-ready skills. However, talent shortages will remain endemic until there is substantial escalation in mid-career re-skilling and upskilling programmes as many of the individuals who need further reskilling and upskilling are beyond school age and current members of the workforce.

Specific policy efforts will need to target reskilling and upskilling for those who are at greatest risk of job displacement or are currently displaced. For example, unemployment services aimed at those out of work can encompass both income support schemes to maintain living standards during times of hardship and access to relevant retraining opportunities mapped to emerging jobs and skill sets to empower future labour market re-allocation. For example, in the past year, the Danish Ministry of Employment provided furloughed workers with an increase on typical unemployment benefits under the condition that they pursue upskilling and reskilling. Other governments, in Singapore and France for example, have provided workers with funded skills accounts for completing additional training. New technologies can support this process, mapping career trajectories and identifying personalized training opportunities with unprecedented granularity.

The events of the past year have further revealed that health systems remain under-funded and under-staffed. In the short to medium term, investments will need to be focused on expanding personnel and capacity to manage the potential of COVID-19 resurgence as well as to deploy a future vaccine. In parallel, countries have already started to, and should continue to adapt their prevention strategies, improving public health messaging, developing greater expertise, implementing new monitoring mechanisms and supporting the safe development of telemedicine.23 These adjustments, together with stronger international collaboration and communications, will contribute to lay the groundwork for greater resilience in the future. In addition, developing economies will need support in funding and deploying their COVID-19 vaccine response as well as strengthening the resilience of their healthcare systems. Weak links in the management of chronic and infectious diseases wreak havoc on local economies and hold global economic consequences as revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic.