The low-paid and younger people have felt the biggest economic impacts of Covid-19 as they are more likely to work in the most affected sectors such as retail, leisure and hospitality. The Resolution Foundation found that hospitality and non-food retail drove the jobs-led recovery from the previous recession as during 2010 and 2011, hospitality and non-food/pharmaceutical retail accounted for 10% of employment, but 22% of employment inflows from unemployment (https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/app/uploads/2020/05/Getting-Britain-working-safely-again.pdf). These sectors have been the most affected during this pandemic, and long-term effects and behavioural change mean that they cannot be relied on to drive the jobs recovery that will be needed in the coming years. Subsequently, it is imperative that policy addresses this in an innovative way. More needs to be done to help facilitate job creation and spark entrepreneurship. The latter is an opportunity to learn from lessons of the past. For example, following the closure of the pits, miners were not helped nor encouraged to utilise their entrepreneurial skills to start businesses of their own, which led to a culture of being employed or people going on to health benefits, rather than fostering a culture of enterprise. Providing support ‚’ both financial and in terms of mentors and role models ‚’ is crucial for post-Covid entrepreneurial economic recovery, especially for young people competing in a tough jobs market.
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