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!