Spatial impacts in a crisis context: promoting inclusive recovery and structural changes

The territorial impact of COVID-19 is still emerging, but it may widen the regional disparities that preceded the pandemic. Marked income differences between regions exist in many Member States. Urban regions tend to have higher median incomes, though variations within urban regions can be large. Hence, income inequality varies substantially at regional level, and inequality indices tend to be highest in the capital regions. The uneven geographical impact of the crisis has often implied greater variation within countries than between them. Labour market indicators only partially capture the full impact of the crisis so far, as a large proportion of the workforce was protected by public policies. Between 2019 and 2020, unemployment rates deteriorated in almost all Member States and more so in cities, towns and suburbs than in rural areas. In addition, the chapter’s experimental analysis of the number of employed persons by the degree of urbanisation and across occupational groups suggests that rural areas have a higher share of nonteleworkable occupations, which declined relatively more than in cities, towns and suburbs at the aggregate level of 26 Member States.