EMCC European Monitoring Centre on Change

In June 2020, more restructuring job losses were recorded (nearly 70,000) on the European Restructuring Monitor than in any month since 2011. And there is little doubt about why this is happening. In four out of five recent large-scale restructurings specific reference is made to COVID-19 as a reason for the restructuring. The impacts of the crisis have been highly selective with two broad sectors - transport and hotel/restaurants – accounting for nearly half of overall announced job loss (compared to less than 10% in ‘normal times’). These are, of course, the sectors where physical distancing requirements impact most on commercial operations. The biggest recent restructuring announcements – at Air France, Lufthansa and Airbus – all involve air travel and are on a huge scale (7,000 to 15,000 job losses in each case). These are unlikely to be the last such announcements given predictions that air travel will not return to its pre-crisis levels before 2024-25.

• Factsheet: Air France
• Factsheet: Lufthansa
• Factsheet: Airbus