Conclusions: Looking Forward, Main Challenges and Limits

The final chapter of the volume summarises the most significant conclusions from the thematic analyses conducted to underline the effects of the pandemic on the business environment and on the labour force. A short synthetic but not simplistic inventory of the main challenges and limits for a post-pandemic robust development is presented, underlining the importance of management of building resilience through prevention actions and flexibility in policy measures. Practically, after each crisis, a ‘new normal’ is built; a new phase of human development is passed, in which the development’s equilibria are reconfigured. Post-pandemic can be defined as a period of reconciliation between economy, society and nature, of reconsider inclusiveness and ‘development for all’. The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted, on the one hand, the benefits of digital transformation and the need for flexibility and innovation in employment and labour market reform, and the usefulness of lifelong learning for upskilling and reskilling. On the other hand, the need for development based on environmental protection, efficient use of resources (energy, human, food, etc.) and intelligent management of the effects of climate change was reconfirmed.