The Overseas Situation Report Friday 30 July 2021
by Mike Evans
“Creating better humans will always be more important than creating smarter machines.”
– Gary Kasparov
We have all heard of how the pandemic has had an effect on businesses around the world. Some against the odds have prospered and some like Amazon and Netflix have seen profits soar. However, across the world there are many who have seen their livelihood disappear during the pandemic. For many businesses the need to downsize has also taken a toll on their ability to employ people. One of the biggest issues to come out of the Covid 19 era is the lack of employment opportunities to the young.
In a recent report by Eurostat data they found that 1 in 6 young adults in the European Union were not in employment, education or training (NEET) in 2020. On closer investigation, young women were more affected than men. In the EU the report found that The Czech Republic and the Netherlands had the lowest NEET rates. The share of NEET young people had been falling since 2013. But 2020 saw the figures go in the other direction. “This sudden change reflects the economic downturn related to the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
This report echoes much the same as the report by the World Economic Forum called The Future of Jobs. After years of growing income inequality, concerns about technology-driven displacement of jobs, and rising societal discord globally, the combined health and economic shocks of 2020 have put economies into freefall, disrupted labour markets and fully revealed the inadequacies of our social contracts. Millions of individuals globally have lost their livelihoods and millions more are at risk from the global recession, structural change to the economy and further automation. Additionally, the pandemic and the subsequent recession have impacted most of those communities which were already at a disadvantage.
The report’s key findings include:
The pace of technology adoption is expected to remain unabated and may accelerate in some areas. The adoption of cloud computing, big data and e-commerce remain high priorities for business leaders, following a trend established in previous years. However, there has also been a significant rise in interest for encryption, non-humanoid robots and artificial intelligence.
Automation, in tandem with the COVID-19 recession, is creating a ‘double-disruption’ scenario for workers. In addition to the current disruption from the pandemic-induced lockdowns and economic contraction, technological adoption by companies will transform tasks, jobs and skills by 2025. Forty Three percent of businesses surveyed indicate that they are set to reduce their workforce due to technology integration, 41% plan to expand their use of contractors for task-specialized work, and 34% plan to expand their workforce due to technology integration.
By 2025, the time spent on current tasks at work by humans and machines will be equal. A significant share of companies also expect to make changes to locations, their value chains, and the size of their workforce due to factors beyond technology in the next five years. Although the number of jobs destroyed will be surpassed by the number of ‘jobs of tomorrow’ created, in contrast to previous years, job creation is slowing while job destruction accelerates.
Employers expect that by 2025, increasingly redundant roles will decline from being 15.4% of the workforce to 9% (6.4% decline), and that emerging professions will grow from 7.8% to 13.5% (5.7% growth) of the total employee base of company respondents. Based on these figures, we estimate that by 2025, 85 million jobs may be displaced by a shift in the division of labour between humans and machines, while 97 million new roles may emerge that are more adapted to the new division of labour between humans, machines and algorithms.
Skills gaps continue to be high as in demand skills across jobs change in the next five years.
The top skills and skill groups which employers see as rising in prominence in the lead up to 2025 include groups such as critical thinking and analysis as well as problem-solving, and skills in self-management such as active learning, resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility. On average, companies estimate that around 40% of workers will require reskilling of six months or less and 94% of business leaders report that they expect employees to pick up new skills on the job, a sharp uptake from 65% in 2018. – The future of work has already arrived for a large majority of the online white-collar workforce. Eighty-four percent of employers are set to rapidly digitalize working processes, including a significant expansion of remote work—with the potential to move 44% of their workforce to operate remotely. To address concerns about productivity and well-being, about one-third of all employers expect to also take steps to create a sense of community, connection and belonging among employees through digital tools, and to tackle the well-being challenges posed by the shift to remote work.
In the absence of proactive efforts, inequality is likely to be exacerbated by the dual impact of technology and the pandemic recession. Jobs held by lower wage workers, women and younger workers were more deeply impacted in the first phase of the economic contraction. Comparing the impact of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 on individuals with lower education levels to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, the impact today is far more significant and more likely to deepen existing inequalities. Online learning and training is on the rise but looks different for those in employment and those who are unemployed.
There has been a four-fold increase in the numbers of individuals seeking out opportunities for learning online through their own initiative, a five-fold increase in employer provision of online learning opportunities to their workers and a nine-fold enrolment increase for learners accessing online learning through government programmes.
Those in employment are placing larger emphasis on personal development courses, which have seen 88% growth among that population. Those who are unemployed have placed greater emphasis on learning digital skills such as data analysis, computer science and information technology.
The window of opportunity to reskill and upskill workers has become shorter in the newly constrained labour market. This applies to workers who are likely to stay in their roles as well as those who risk losing their roles due to rising recession-related unemployment and can no longer expect to retrain at work. For those workers set to remain in their roles, the share of core skills that will change in the next five years is 40%, and 50% of all employees will need re-skilling (up 4%).
The public sector needs to provide stronger support for re-skilling and up-skilling for at-risk or displaced workers. Currently, only 21% of businesses report being able to make use of public funds to support their employees through reskilling and upskilling. The public sector will need to create incentives for investments in the markets and jobs of tomorrow; provide stronger safety nets for displaced workers in the midst of job transitions; and to decisively tackle long delayed improvements to education and training systems. Additionally, it will be important for governments to consider the longer-term labour market implications of maintaining, withdrawing or partly continuing the strong COVID-19 crisis support they are providing to support wages and maintain jobs in most advanced economies.
As the world starts to come out of the isolation that Covid 19 has forced on almost every country, the need to work will never be stronger especially for those who are now leaving school. With the world almost being on “stop sell” for 19 months it remains to be seem how long it is before those who have never had a job find the job which will help fulfill their dreams in a post covid world.
Until the next time stay safe.
Total Cases Worldwide – 196,988,941
Total Deaths Worldwide – 4,208,841
Total Recovered Worldwide – 178,318,859
Total Active Cases Worldwide – 14,461,241 (7.3% of the total cases)
Total Closed Cases Worldwide – 182,527,700
Information and resources:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-future-of-jobs-report-2020/digest
On Wednesday, there were 29 new Covid-19 cases (15 imported cases – 6 from France, 4 from the UK, 1 from Belgium, 1 from the Netherlands and 3 from the Lisbon and Tagus Valley Region & 14 cases of local transmission) and 17 recoveries. The number of patients in hospital decreased to 6, with none in intensive care. This was also the day the total number of Covid-19 cases in Madeira reached 10,000.
As for Covid-19 testing on passengers who had arrived at Funchal and Porto Santo airports, 270,875 samples had been collected until Tuesday (at 15h30). By Tuesday, 539,204 samples from RT-PCR tests had been processed and 73,785 antigen rapid tests had been carried out in the Autonomous Region of Madeira.
Vaccination for teenagers aged 12-17 will start on Saturday in the Funchal Vaccination Centre (Centro de Vacinação do Funchal), located at Madeira Tecnopolo. This will only be applicable to the Autonomous Region of Madeira, which is in charge of this specific healthcare policy. No booking will be required. Those aged 12-17 will be inoculated with the Pfizer vaccine while males aged 18 or older will be inoculated with the Janssen vaccine. The aim is to quickly inoculate as many teens as possible.
There was also a great deal on focus on the success of the vaccination plan in which Portugal stands out with one of the highest vaccination rates in Europe and on 25th July being placed at 9th place in the world according to Our World in Data. The plan is to extend vaccinations down to 16 and 17 year olds starting 14th August. Clearly this is important given that the greatest increases in cases are in the younger age groups.
There is greater incidence in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto, as well as in the Algarve. In Lisbon and the Algarve, there is already “a trend of stabilization or descent”. In Porto, there are still “growth areas”, since, here, the resurgence of the pandemic occurred after it had occurred in Lisbon.
“We all want to have this information as soon as possible and we are prepared to vaccinate these age groups in logistic terms, we now depend on this technical assessment and there is also a decision that can be taken beyond this technical decision”, he said.
Infarmed has received more than 11,000 reports of side effects from vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. Of these, four thousand were considered serious.
Underlining the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on patient care, particularly with regard to chronic patients, the Ordem dos Enfermeiros (OE) wants to accelerate the implementation of the family nurse figure in terms of health care.
The announcement was made this Monday, July 26, by António Bota, Mayor, on Facebook.
The Algarve Football Association (AFA), together with the regional board of the Portuguese Institute of Sport and Youth (IPDJ) and with the participation of the Portuguese Football Federation, recently promoted an online clarification session for the Algarve emblems under the measure «Reactivate Sport», launched by the Government through the IPDJ, with the objective of supporting the economic recovery of its affiliated clubs, affected in recent seasons by the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the possibility of starting to vaccinate children from 12 years of age, “it will be up to the monitoring committee to make its recommendation to the Regional Government”.
From 00:00 on Monday, restaurants, drinks and similar establishments in the lower and very low risk counties are no longer obligatory to close at midnight.
The remaining municipalities of the Azores will be on alert, with the measures planned for very low risk municipalities, with the exception of the islands that have already reached 70% vaccination (Corvo, Santa Maria, São Jorge, Pico and Graciosa), where the restrictive measures have already been eased.
With the emergence of two new primary local transmission chains in the last 24 hours, five chains are now active in the archipelago, two on the island of Pico, one on the island of Faial, one between the island of Pico and Flores and one on the island of São Jorge. To date, 218 have been extinguished on all islands. There are 2,005 people under active surveillance today.
Children and teenagers were particularly at risk of becoming victims of e-trafficking due to a combination of poverty, the closing of schools, and an increase of time spent online.
“These are often children of single girls who have been deceived, sold, kidnapped, and who have suffered torture and rape on their way to Europe. The children are often prisoners as well, along with their mothers. They are trapped in a cycle of violence, blackmail and abuse that must be broken at all costs. It is vital to strengthen and support services to help these women escape and to guarantee health, education, protection and inclusion for their children”, said Raffaela Milano, Save the Children’s Europe Programme Director in Italy.
According to Europol, technology has expanded the capacity of criminal networks, both in the countries of origin and in those of transit and destination. Through technology, they can use encrypted communications, avoid direct interaction with recruited victims, avoid coming across police, and have access to GPS-based apps. Save the Children said there was insufficient commitment from governments to monitor, prevent and fight child trafficking.
To be sure, the foundation started getting SOS messages within weeks of the national lockdown imposed in March 2020. “In many places, the children were left without any food or work.” Experts have pointed out how systems designed to help children failed to keep up with the alarming spread of Covid-19; the economic situation pushed many into destitution.
Ganguly of HAQ said strengthening social structures was the only way to stop child trafficking rather than more punitive laws and penal reforms.
The three-day holiday is usually a time of travel, family get-togethers and lavish daytime feasts after weeks of dawn-to-dusk fasting. But this year many of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims will have to pray at home and make due with video calls.
Al-Aqsa is the third holiest site in Islam and would ordinarily welcome tens of thousands of worshippers during the Eid. The hilltop compound is also the holiest site for Jews, who know it as the Temple Mount. The site has long been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Covid-19 infections in Indonesia are at their peak last week with the highest daily average reported at more than 50,000 new infections each day. Until mid-June, daily cases had been running at about 8,000.
In India, home to the Hindu religion there have also been a number of cancellations of religious festivals. Kumbh Mela, also called Kumbha Mela, in Hinduism, religious festival that is celebrated four times over the course of 12 years, the site of the observance rotating between four pilgrimage places on four sacred rivers—at Haridwar on the Ganges River, at Ujjain on the Shipra, at Nashik on the Godavari, and at Prayag (modern Prayagraj) at the confluence of the Ganges, the Jamuna, and the mythical Sarasvati. Each site’s celebration is based on a distinct set of astrological positions of the Sun, the Moon, and Jupiter, the holiest time occurring at the exact moment when these positions are fully occupied. The Kumbh Mela at Prayag, in particular, attracts millions of pilgrims.
According to a report in The Guardian newspaper, The number of excess deaths in 
In terms of number of new cases the UK has the dubious title of the highest number of new cases across the world in the week at 331,094 compared to 242,097 in the previous week, a rise of 37%. Next comes Indonesia with 313,784 and then the USA with 294,480.
The so-called passe sanitaire will be required for all events or places with more than 50 people as of Wednesday before being extended to restaurants, cafés and shopping centres in August, President Emmanuel Macron announced in a televised address last week. Once inside, however, people can take off their face masks, which remain necessary inside shops or businesses or on public transportation. Tens of thousands of vaccine sceptics took to the streets in protest over the new measures last week, accusing Macron of running a vaccine “dictatorship”. Around 35.5 million people—just over half of France’s population—have received at least one vaccine dose so far.
Hospitals across Java are being pushed to the brink and the country’s oxygen supply is running dangerously low, while prices of oxygen have surged. More than 60 people died in a single facility in early July after a hospital on Java nearly exhausted its oxygen supply, though a hospital spokesman could not confirm if all the dead had contracted Covid-19.
And finally to Australia, which saw an 47% increase in new cases in the last week.This has caused three states to be in lockdown as coronavirus circles within the community, causing borders to slam shut. Victoria’s extended lockdown will continue for at least another week, and South Australia has entered a seven-day lockdown. Queensland and Victoria have locked out South Australians and New South Wales increased border screening. NSW continues to battle the Delta outbreak, with Greater Sydney’s lockdown slated to end on July 30 but expected to last longer.
The young man has been missing for about a week and the case was reported to the Public Ministry, so that the procedures to be followed in the investigation can be started.
Two years after the approval of measures to strengthen responses to prevent and combat domestic violence, the Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality highlighted the intervention model of victim support offices (GAV) in the Departments of Investigation and Criminal Action (DIAP), which is now being evaluated, and which started with offices in Braga, Aveiro, Coimbra, Lisbon West, Lisbon North and Faro, but should be expanded.
On Tuesday, the vaccination open day using spare doses of AstraZeneca vaccine was a huge success. The spare doses were available for those aged 18 or older, who merely had to turn up at the vaccination centre in Funchal (Madeira Tecnopólo) in order to be inoculated. There was no need for booking a vaccination slot. By 18h00, about 1,000 vaccine doses had been administered, 600 of which had been first doses. The success of this vaccination open day meant that a second vaccination open day was announced. It will take place on July 27th.