Coronavirus DK: Disappearing jobs, equipment and ice

Statistics Denmark reports that 87,000 jobs disappeared (DK) in the spring. “That is an insane number,” says Las Olsen, Chief Economist at Danske Bank. “We’ve never seen anything like it before.” It reverses all the employment growth since late 2017. The worst hit sectors are commerce and transport, which together accounted for half of the decline. Next come culture, leisure and other services, which experienced the largest percentage drop. The figures are rather uncertain, however, and actually higher, says Olsen, because people who are receiving wage compensation are not included.

Selective rebound expected
The decline is not as large as when 200,000 lost their jobs during the financial crisis, but it has taken place much more quickly. On the other hand, the recovery should also come faster as businesses and other organizations reopen. Certain industries, such as hospitality and entertainment, will not recover for a couple of years, however, and some people will need to shift to other fields in order to find work, concludes Olsen.

Disappearing PPE
Something else has vanished in large volumes since March – personal protective equipment. The police have registered 29 cases of sanitizer, face masks and gloves being stolen (DK) from hospitals, nursing homes and shops since March, and they treat them very seriously: “We did it especially in the start, because at that point we were in an acute situation where it was possible Denmark would run out of protective equipment,” said Søren Enevoldsen, deputy inspector with the National Investigatory Center. These crimes have received special attention because in April Parliament passed a bill that made the punishment for offenses related to the coronavirus epidemic four times as high as usual.

Mobile supply cabinets are a target for PPE thieves. Photo: (C) DR Nyheder.

This meant that someone who steals, say, DKK 10,000 ($1,500) worth of supplies from a hospital could get the same sentence as someone charged with assault with a knife. The reasoning is that both actions could put someone’s life in danger. At one point, one quarter of nursing home employees were reporting a shortage of PPE. A man who committed theft from a hospital, for example, was sentenced to four months in prison. Few offenders have been sentenced, though, because many of the arrests took place before the increased penalty went into effect. 

Glaciers disappearing, but Greenland will remain
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo came to Copenhagen on Wednesday and assured the nation that the US is ready to fight in the Arctic for the people of Denmark. “We have all been a little bit naïve to watch not only the Russians but also the Chinese interests there become more and more aggressive.” As the glaciers in the Arctic melt, more opportunities for military patrolling as well as trade open up. One month ago, the US opened a new consulate in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, and made a commitment to invest in the strategically important region.

Pompeo affirmed that Denmark continues to be one of America’s closest allies: “We are two nations that are both robust democracies.” On that topic, he didn't mention his boss’s refusal to say that he would abide by the presidential election results in November. On the positive side, neither did he repeat Trump’s attempt to buy the autonomous territory.