Employment 2020: Taking Stock After One Year of COVID-19 Pandemic

The federal government's measures to counteract the COVID-19 pandemic had a remarkable impact on the labor market. After the drastic losses in the spring of 2020, employment losses declined as the economy rebounded and summer tourism picked up. However, due to the renewed lockdown in November and the delayed start of the winter tourism season at the end of the year, employment fell again and was 3.3 percent below the previous year's level at the end of December 2020. On average for 2020 – i.e. including the period up to the first lockdown in March – the decline in active dependent employment was 2.0 percent. Young people and workers were particularly affected by job losses; by economic sector, in addition to tourism, labor leasing, the travel industry (travel agencies, tour operators), the contact-intensive sectors of leisure, culture and personal services, and transport lost the most employees.