Book chapter

Consequences of COVID-19 on the Barcelona labor market

Title of the book:
The Impact of COVID on Cities and Regions. Policy Responses of Local Leaders

Authors:

• Joan Trullén (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
• Vittorio Galletto (Institut Metròpoli)

[*] Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Date of realization:
01/2023

Publishing house: 
Edward Elgar

Pages:
20

Abstract:

Covid-19, declared a pandemic by the WHO on 11 March 2020, is a unique example of how an exogenous factor can radically alter the functioning of an economic system. A little over two and a half years after the start of this pandemic, there is still not enough perspective to accurately analyse its economic and social impact (although in the case of Spain, some recent papers have been collected in the reviews Información Comercial Española 2021 and 2022). This chapter studies a specific case of particular relevance: the Barcelona metropolis (Trullén et al 2021).

The aim of this chapter is to identify some of the ways the pandemic has affected the functioning of the Barcelona labour market. Due to its characteristics as a significantly large metropolis (five million inhabitants), with an export-based industrial sector (around 20% of Spanish exports), a highly relevant tourism sector, and large transport and communication infrastructures, the great mobility in and around Barcelona inevitably boosted the transmission of a virus such as covid-19. However, the adoption by central government and the European Union of powerful labour and fiscal policies made it possible to significantly reduce the impact the pandemic had on employment.