The article entitled 'The short-term impact of COVID-19 on job seeking', edited by Bank of Italy researchers, is now online.
The article analyses the effects of the current COVID-19 epidemic on job offers and focuses on Italy, the first western country to be seriously affected. It finds an unprecedented fall in the search for jobs as a result of the epidemic, and uses the intensity of job seeking on high frequency Internet as an indicator.
If this trend were confirmed over the next few months, it would make a negative contribution to the change in the unemployment rate, softening its increase given the likelihood of a marked fall in employment levels.