A goal of emergency management is to minimize adverse economic impact.

The lockdown strategy has generated massive collateral damage, negatively impacted the economy, and has impacted all sectors of society including public, private, and not-for-profit entities. For example, Ontario lost over 350,000 jobs in 2020, the largest recorded decline in history. Statistics Canada has reported that GDP shrank 5.4% in 2020 - the worst decline on record, shutting down businesses and putting millions out of work. Across Canada it is estimated that 200,000 businesses will permanently close their doors. In addition, underemployment has rapidly grown as many employers reduce employee hours as a result of dramatically reduced business. OXFAM suggests the coronavirus pandemic has the potential to lead to an increase in inequality in almost every country at once, the first time this has happened since records began.

According to OXFAM, "The 1,000 richest people on the planet recouped their COVID-19 losses within just nine months, but it could take more than a decade for the world’s poorest to recover from the economic impacts of the pandemic." OXFAM is "calling for the fight against inequality to be at the heart of economic rescue and recovery efforts."

In Canada, former MP and Cabinet Minister Perrin Beatty, currently President of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, has called for an economic recovery strategy which remobilizes the Canadian economy and returns Canada to full employment. In addition, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce is encouraging plans to avoid future lockdowns. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce also released information on March 5th stating that 51% of Canadian businesses reported they did not know how long they could continue operations at their current level of revenue and expenditures before considering closure or bankruptcy. The Chamber stated, "Canada must find new answers to manage the pandemic until vaccination rates increase. We simply cannot afford to take the same approach we’ve seen used over the past year. We need a viable reopening plan that takes a holistic approach with a focus on tools like rapid-testing and robust contact tracing."