Building a resilient recovery

The digital and green transformations have driven rapid changes in the world of work. Along with ageing populations, workers are facing ever greater job instability – which could impose costs on companies, workers and society.

By 2019, the average length of a job for a worker fell by nine months compared with just seven years before, a decline has been felt across all age groups. People have also been changing jobs at a faster pace, with one in five workers experiencing a change every year. This is a greater challenge for older workers.

With more people working for longer and against a backdrop of acute labour and skill shortages – a trend COVID-19 appears to have accelerated – there is a greater need to understand how to put the skills of a multigenerational workforce to better use, including through greater worker retention.

The use of telemedicine was limited in most OECD countries before COVID‑19. In 2020, governments began promoting it, including by changing provider payment systems. Teleconsultations skyrocketed, and were crucial to maintaining care.

Today, there are key differences in how remote care is organised, regulated and financed across the OECD. Uncertainties remain, with only 17 countries saying regulations governing telemedicine are clear. This may make it difficult for providers to offer remote care.

Policymakers should consider:

• who uses remote care and why, and what happens after its use, to better understand telemedicine’s impact on health systems

• whether payment and organisational arrangements encourage the most effective use of telemedicine

• how to integrate remote and in-person care

Explore key indicators from 27 Asia-Pacific countries and territories on health status, determinants of health, healthcare resources and utilisation, healthcare expenditure and financing, and quality of care (25 Nov 2022)

What are the key challenges to building more resilient and effective health systems following COVID-19? How has the pandemic affected young people’s mental and physical health, and non-COVID patients? (5 Dec 2022)

COVID-19 exacerbated the long-standing skills shortages in the health workforce. This joint OECD-ILO report provides a comparative overview of practices in 16 countries and examines how governments can better respond to future crises. (15 Dec 2022)

The report examines the primary healthcare policies and actions taken to absorb the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru. (13 Dec 2022)

In 2020, the COVID-19 shock saw the average direct contribution of tourism to GDP in OECD countries plummet to 2.8% – a 1.9 percentage point fall compared before COVID-19. On average it generated 20.5% of service-related exports in the OECD.

Tourism creates jobs, stimulates regional development and supports local communities. Countries with a sizeable tourism sector pre-COVID-19, such as Iceland (8.1% of GDP), Mexico (8.0%) and Portugal (8.1%), have experienced some of the biggest declines in the sector’s direct contribution to GDP, and in overall GDP.

While job retention schemes helped mitigate the impact of the pandemic on tourism employment, labour shortages and skills gaps risk constraining the recovery. In the first quarter of 2022, employment in accommodation and food services was, on average, 9.0% below its pre-COVID-19 level.

COVID-19 exposed many economic vulnerabilities. But the recovery from the pandemic presents an opportunity to rethink how to better allocate investment capital to bolster economic resilience.

Investing in the economy is part of the business of pension providers – significant capital is already allocated to equities and corporate bonds. However, despite having a long-term investment outlook, their historical allocations to less liquid, long-term assets such as infrastructure (e.g. transport, utilities and energy, communications, social infrastructure) are low. Unlisted infrastructure equity and debt, for example, accounted for only 1.3% of total pension fund assets under management in 2017.

Removing barriers to alternative investments could direct more capital to longer-term assets – and bolster the transition to more resilient economies.

USD 6.3bn of COVID-19 vaccine aid was given to developing countries in 2021 – equivalent to nearly 857 million doses. This was 3.5% of total official development assistance (ODA) from members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC), lifting it to an all-time high of USD 179bn, up 4.4% in real terms vs. 2020. Excluding COVID-19 vaccines, it was up 0.6%.

Challenges lie ahead. Spiking commodity prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine means the spectre of food insecurity looms large.

Combined with significantly higher energy prices and mounting fiscal pressures that are constraining growth, additional ODA for the hardest hit will be needed. Governments’ efforts to build a resilient economic recovery from COVID-19 just got harder.

> See news release

Face masks, testing kits and COVID-19 vaccines are three products many people have become rapidly familiar with since the outbreak of the pandemic.

New OECD analysis highlights the essential role played by global supply chains in ensuring steady access to a wide range of materials and ingredients as manufacturers rapidly scaled up production to meet surging demand.