EMCC European Monitoring Centre on Change

Recent restructuring activity recorded on ERM has shown an easing of the pandemic effects on employment in the first months of 2021 and hopeful signs of economic recovery. After the dramatic peaks of spring 2020 during the first COVID-19 wave, job losses announcements were already slightly decreasing in the last quarter of 2020 – both in terms of number of restructurings and of jobs affected. This positive trend is confirmed in 2021. For the first time since 2018, the balance of job gain to job loss in ERM cases has turned positive. Four of the largest cases of business expansion so far in 2021 have involved major retailers including Amazon (in France), Primark (in Italy) and Lidl (in Romania and Poland), each involving at least 2,000 new jobs.