The note reviews policy options to mitigate the (formal) employment impact of COVID-19, many of which are being deployed by governments. The immediate priority is to preserve jobs and laid-off workers’ incomes, which calls for short-time work subsidies and scaled-up unemployment insurance—primarily easier eligibility criteria. As activity resumes, wage and hiring subsidies, as well as activation policies, should play a growing role. Clear phasing-out mechanisms are needed at the outset to ensure that these tools do not impede the eventual recovery, including reallocation of workers towards new jobs.
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