Covid-19 has created structural changes in the workplace

SOME economists welcome sharp economic downturns because of the "cleansing effects of recessions". They often refer to the concept of "creative destruction", developed by the Austrian-born economist Joseph Schumpeter in the 1950s.

Schumpeter himself saw it as a "process of industrial mutation that continuously revolutionises the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one".

The current global pandemic has brought about plenty of economic destruction. Massive layoffs are one clear indication of this, as are the near-complete income losses of day labourers worldwide. Even though the world is still in the early throes of the second wave of Covid-19, the economic contraction has reached levels not seen since the Great Depression.