A global pandemic caused by a microscopic enemy, which outbroke in Wuhan, China, quickly spread throughout the modern world, bringing world's largest economies to a halt. By March 2020, the whole world was impacted by the ripple effects of COVID-19 and was in the midst of battling this infectious disease. The pervasive economic consequences of the coronavirus are not a macroeconomic problem that can be solved or reduced. Instead, the world is seeing a fundamental change in the nature of the global economy. The immediate crisis is considered to have affected both supply and demand. Declining supply shall be considered as a short-term issue, that stimulus plans by various countries, including a massive plan by the US government, along with historic low interest rates, may remedy. In this article we examine different scenarios of the supply chain's future and its separation from social trends. Moving nations toward self-sufficiency may deeply alter globalization, which requires the division of labor between different economies. Unless strong economic policy measures are taken to prevent social disintegration, this change may be an end to globalization. Hence, many global leaders have implemented stimulus packages in an effort to relieve the economic stress felt by businesses and families, as a short-term economic stress relief. This pandemic has demonstrated the fragile nature of the US and the global trade system, due to majority of products being manufactured in China. There is an urgent need to expand manufacturing industries to various countries rather than concentrate most of them in one location. This pandemic will result in a shift to self-sufficiency, in the short-term, within borders. However, in the long-run, it will redefine globalization to include more countries functioning as micro-hubs for production, which should be implemented to avoid the "all eggs in one basket" scenario. In addition, this system will enable smaller economies to participate in the global platform.
In March 2020, the whole world was impacted by the ripple effects of COVID-19 and was in the midst of battling this infectious disease. A global pandemic caused by a microscopic enemy, which outbroke in Wuhan, China, quickly spread, bringing the world's largest economies to a halt. As a consequence, the financial infrastructures of several countries have been severely damaged. In just 3 weeks, unemployment claims surpassed 16 million in the United States alone, which soared to over 40 million by the end of May 2020. This accounts for a jobless rate of over 24%, a record high in history. Production of chemicals that go into construction and consumer uses trended down in March, and continued plummeting downward in the following months. The chemical manufacturing sector showed a slight drop in employment rate. It is important to understand these broad trends in the demand for chemicals and unemployment in chemistry in the coming months and years. In an economic downturn, fewer people buy new houses and new cars, which decreases the demand for the chemicals that go into manufacturing them. The dramatic drops in the stock market will also affect the pharmaceutical sector. It may become harder for small biotech firms to raise money from investors and seed new positions in start-ups. For major chemical and pharmaceutical companies, if stock prices and quarterly results suffer, we may begin to see layoffs-a reversal of the hiring trends of the past few years. Academia will be affected as well. For many universities and colleges, the sudden disruption in the academic structure of the Spring 2020 semester is having an immediate financial impact. Hiring freezes have begun. However, the effects of the economic downturn on new tenure-track positions won't be clear until early Fall.
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