Past, Present and Future of the Spanish Labour Market: When the Pandemic meets the Megatrends

This paper reviews the experience so far of the Spanish labour market during the Covid‐19 crisisin the light of the existing institutions, its performance during past recessions, and the policymeasures adopted during the pandemic. Emphasis is placed on the role of worldwide trends inlabour markets, due to automation and AI, in shaping a potential recovery of this (hopefully)transitory shock through a big reallocation process of employment and economic activity. It alsohighlights some innovations to employment and social policies needed to smooth thereallocation process and lessen the rise in inequality associated to technological trends.