{"id":8081,"date":"2020-11-13T15:31:30","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T15:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.economicsobservatory.com\/question\/news-13-nov-2020"},"modified":"2021-02-26T15:17:19","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T15:17:19","slug":"news-13-nov-2020","status":"publish","type":"question","link":"https:\/\/www.economicsobservatory.com\/test\/news\/13-nov-2020","title":{"rendered":"Life and livelihood, health and wealth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newsletter from 13 November 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

The UK death toll from Covid-19 passed 50,000 this week, a sombre reminder of the human costs of this crisis. While hopes of an end in sight have been raised by news of a vaccine, the pandemic continues to pose what Bank of England chief economist\u00a0Andy Haldane<\/a>\u00a0calls a double jeopardy \u2013 \u2018a risk to both life and to livelihood, a risk to both health and wealth\u2019.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Economics Observatory released a short film \u2013\u00a0Economics Meets Epidemiology<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 exploring the collaboration between economists and public health experts designing policy responses that can improve both health and economic outcomes. This week, we focused on two key elements of those interactions in the face of the second wave of the virus and renewed lockdown: what\u2019s happening to people\u2019s jobs and pay; and what\u2019s happening to their mental health.<\/p>\n

Work and wellbeing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since we launched in June, a number of Observatory articles have focused on the effects of coronavirus on the world of work, including a comparison of the\u00a0US and UK labour markets<\/a>; examinations of the experience of the\u00a0self-employed<\/a>,\u00a0apprentices<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0young people starting their careers<\/a>; and a series of pieces on the\u00a0job furlough schemes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some of our most recent posts look at monthly UK labour market data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which were released on Tuesday with the latest information on employment, earnings, redundancies, benefit claims and vacancies.\u00a0Rory MacQueen<\/a>\u00a0at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR<\/a>) focuses on\u00a0wage growth<\/a>, showing the recovery in average weekly earnings over the summer, but the continued wide variation in earnings across the economy \u2013 in part due to differences in sectors\u2019 shares of furloughed workers.<\/p>\n

\"Figure<\/p>\n

In one of our new \u2018dataviz\u2019 pieces,\u00a0Jonathan Wadsworth<\/a>\u00a0at the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP<\/a>) comments on\u00a0redundancies<\/a>, which have been widely touted as being at \u2018record highs\u2019. But as Jonathan explains, that doesn\u2019t account for the fact that the workforce is much bigger than it was 25 or even ten years ago \u2013 now at 33 million workers, four million more than at the start of the 2008 recession. Put in that context, we are still some way off the dark days of 2008 and not remotely close to the experiences of the 1980s.<\/p>\n

In another data article,\u00a0Steven Proud<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0Bristol<\/a>\u00a0shows how the\u00a018-24 age group is bearing the brunt of job losses<\/a>. This resonates with my last newsletter \u2013 on \u2018Generation Covid<\/a>\u2019 \u2013 which highlighted how the pandemic is causing particularly severe damage to the lives of school children, university and college students, and young people starting out in the labour market.<\/p>\n

\"Figure<\/p>\n

The labour market\u2019s link to mental health comes in a fascinating article by\u00a0Fabien Postel-Vinay<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0University College London<\/a>\u00a0and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS<\/a>), who has written for us before on the challenge of getting good matches between employees\u2019 skills and employers\u2019 needs \u2013 and\u00a0how labour market policy can help get people back into the \u2018right\u2019 jobs<\/a>\u00a0as the economy recovers from the crisis.<\/p>\n

His new piece explores the\u00a0adverse effects on mental health<\/a>\u00a0of job and income loss, of being in a low-paid job and of changes in working conditions. In particular, he looks at the exposure to stress in different occupations, which understandably affects future mental health. There is clear evidence that the crisis is not only increasing the stress levels associated with certain occupations \u2013 the NHS, social care and other key workers \u2013 but that people are also moving from their old jobs into new ones that are potentially more stressful.<\/p>\n

\"Figure<\/p>\n

Previous Observatory pieces on mental health challenges of the pandemic include the impact of the\u00a0social isolation of lockdown on people\u2019s wellbeing<\/a>; the disproportionately big effects on the\u00a0mental health of ethnic minorities<\/a>; and the\u00a0wellbeing of adolescents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On related issues, this week, the Economic and Social Research Council, which funds the Observatory, announced the winners of this year\u2019s \u2018Celebrating Impact<\/a>\u2019 awards, which includes important work on adolescent mental health by\u00a0Emla Fitzsimons and Praveetha Patalay<\/a>\u00a0at the\u00a0Institute of Education<\/a>\u00a0at UCL; and a lifetime achievement award to\u00a0CEP\u2019s Richard Layard<\/a>\u00a0for research informing public policies for employment, skills, wellbeing and mental health.<\/p>\n

Round-up<\/strong><\/p>\n

Other topical Observatory pieces worth reading:<\/p>\n

-\u00a0Funding national healthcare systems<\/a>:\u00a0Luigi Siciliani<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0York<\/a>\u00a0looks at challenges to the financial sustainability of hospitals and primary care providers resulting from a reduction in services due to patients\u2019 fears of infection.<\/p>\n

-\u00a0Basing offers of university places on A-level results not predictions<\/a>:\u00a0Lindsey Macmillan<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Gill Wyness<\/a>\u00a0at the\u00a0Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities<\/a>\u00a0at UCL summarise evidence suggesting that teachers typically over-predict and that some school students\u2019 grades are harder to predict than others \u2013 both potential reasons for moving to a \u2018post-qualification model\u2019, as proposed this week by the University and College Admissions Service (UCAS).<\/p>\n

-\u00a0Rationing essential goods in an effort to prevent panic buying and shortages<\/a>: IFS researchers\u00a0Martin O\u2019Connell<\/a>,\u00a0\u00c1ureo de Paula<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Kate Smith<\/a>\u00a0find that spikes in spending before the March lockdown were driven by many more households than usual buying these products, rather than a small number of people buying extreme amounts.<\/p>\n

-\u00a0The vaccine and the stock market<\/a>:\u00a0John Turner<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Gareth Campbell<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0Queen\u2019s University Belfast<\/a>\u00a0dig into the reactions of share prices of different companies and sectors to the news from Pfizer and BioNTech.<\/p>\n

\"Table<\/p>\n

#economicsfest<\/strong><\/p>\n

Next week is the annual\u00a0Festival of Economics<\/a>\u00a0in Bristol, co-programmed by Observatory director\u00a0Richard Davies<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Diane Coyle<\/a>, who founded the event eight years ago and is one of our lead editors.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll be reporting on some of the conversations, which will include Diane talking to\u00a0Shriti Vadera<\/a>, who was a minister in Gordon Brown\u2019s government during the global financial crisis; and Richard talking to former Office for Budget Responsibility chairman\u00a0Robert Chote<\/a>\u00a0and to\u00a0Anne Case<\/a>\u00a0about his book on\u00a0Extreme Economies<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and her book with Angus Deaton on\u00a0Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be moderating a couple of sessions on\u00a0diversifying<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0decolonising<\/a>\u00a0economics as well as a discussion of\u00a0rebuilding after the pandemic in Bristol and the West of England<\/a>. Since the festival is happening online this year, you don\u2019t need to be in town to\u00a0join us<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 please come along!<\/p>\n

Romesh Vaitilingam, Editor-in-Chief<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2778,"template":"","categories":[230,233,492,224],"tags":[489],"yoast_head":"\nLife and livelihood, health and wealth - Economics Observatory<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The UK death toll from Covid-19 passed 50,000 this week, a sombre reminder of the human costs of this crisis.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.economicsobservatory.com\/test\/news\/13-nov-2020\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Life and livelihood, health and wealth - Economics Observatory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The UK death toll from Covid-19 passed 50,000 this week, a sombre reminder of the human costs of this crisis.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.economicsobservatory.com\/test\/news\/13-nov-2020\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Economics Observatory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-26T15:17:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.economicsobservatory.com\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/CJRS-Wage-Growth-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1691\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"904\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@econobservatory\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.economicsobservatory.com\/test\/news\/13-nov-2020\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.economicsobservatory.com\/test\/news\/13-nov-2020\",\"name\":\"Life and livelihood, health and wealth - 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