3.28 million people in the U.S. filed for unemployment last week. In the half-century that the U.S. government has tracked applications, the most applications filed in a single week had been fewer than 700,000.Numerous countries including the UK, Canada and the US have put financial easing measures in place to help those employees suddenly out of work and employers grappling to handle the new norm. In this HRchat interview, Andi Britt, Vice President Talent & Transformation Europe at IBM talks about COVID-19's unprecedented impact on global unemployment rates, what the latest employment figures actually mean, and how AI and automation may step in to fill the gaps. Andi is a speaker at the InnovateWork UK virtual event on June 4th. Check out the agenda and register here. We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc.   Support the showFeature Your Brand on the HRchat PodcastThe HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score. Want to share the story of how your business is helping to shape the world of work? We offer sponsored episodes, audio adverts, email campaigns, and a host of other options. Check out packages here. Follow us on LinkedIn Subscribe to our newsletter Check out our in-person events