Top civil servants warned of ‘deep scarring effects’ of lockdowns
Officials at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform reported that the lifting of level 5 restrictions before Christmas did not have an ‘immediate and positive impact on the labour market’
Fewer workers than expected returned to their jobs in December as large sectors of the economy reopened, raising fears within government of the “deep scarring effects” of “stop/start public health restrictions”.
Internal briefings at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) show that officials worried in mid-December that the lifting of level 5 restrictions at the beginning of that month had “not resulted in the same immediate and significant positive impact on the labour ...