Contemporary capitalism wasn’t working for everyone, even before Covid-19. The danger now, as we contemplate the first halting steps towards rebooting the economy, is that any gains which have been made in narrowing inequality get thrown into sharp reverse.

There have been hints that this week’s forthcoming review of UK lockdown measures will result in an extension of restrictions, possibly to the end of June. Somewhat incompatibly, the Prime Minister has also promised to deliver a “comprehensive plan” on how lockdown may be eased once Britain is declared past the peak of the outbreak.

All indications from the First Minister are that, if anything, Scotland will be even more hesitant in removing restrictions. Whatever the case may be, businesses are now beginning to seriously ponder how to get back to work.

Although some are examining innovative ways in which staff could be “decontaminated” before entering a building, most return plans are founded on the social distancing that Government leaders have said will need to be maintained possibly through to the end of the year. This could well signal an end to the days of hundreds or thousands of people working from a single building, though in sectors such as banking and financial services, technology offers alternatives to centralised workplaces.

Construction companies will be among the first to resume operations. Some employees at Taylor Wimpey are already due to come back this week in what the housebuilder expects to be a staged return to 80% capacity within a month. Redrow and Persimmon have similar plans, but in all cases this activity is limited to England and Wales, as the Scottish Government has yet to give the green light for building work to resume in this country.

Manufacturing also seems set for a place in the priority lane, and there will no doubt be a push to get key public services such as the courts back to a semblance of normal.

The wave thereafter will likely include retailers, with the likes of Next, Debenhams and John Lewis currently laying plans to implement supermarket-style distancing measures when they get the go-ahead to reopen their stores. Meanwhile, the UK’s army of SMEs – which make up more than 99% of private sector firms in Scotland – will be seeking guidance on when and how they can get back to business.

Hospitality, entertainment and tourism will be at the back of the queue when it comes to the Government’s exit plan for getting the economy back up and running. These sectors have been all but flattened by the coronavirus outbreak, and their workforces – dominated by those on lower pay, women and the young – will get left behind unless we take great care in how this economic recovery is managed.

Since the 1970s, income inequality has risen sharply in most advanced economies on the planet. According to figures from the World Bank, the UK ranks among the most unequal nations in Europe, but is more equal than the US, which is the most divided wealthy nation in the world.

This is measured by what’s known as the Gini score, with zero representing total equality and 100 the reading for complete inequality. The UK’s most recent Gini score stood at 34.8, having fallen back from a peak of 35.1 at the turn of the millennium. But that score stood at around 26 in the early 1960s, where it stayed until the inequality gap started to take off in the late 1970s.

The marginal improvement managed in the 21st century is now set to be wiped out as the pandemic leads to higher unemployment in an economy operating at substantially less than full capacity.

Many of the jobs that have and will be lost tend to pay poorly, and a large proportion of those affected have neither the skills nor technology to work from home or retrain for alternative employment. The longer the economy remains in low gear, the deeper become the inequalities that led to the political and social polarisation at the centre of our culture prior to the Covid-19 emergency.

Women are disproportionately represented in low-paying jobs with few benefits, which is exactly where the brunt of the decline in paid employment is being felt. And at the same time as they are losing their incomes, many are also facing huge increases in care work due to school closures and the increased needs of elderly relatives.

Of course, many men are also facing job losses and conflicting demands. But it has been estimated that even in the best of circumstances, women do three times more domestic work than men, making them more likely to be called upon if businesses reopen while schools remain closed.

One recent study by three economists points to the impact this is having on women’s careers, regardless of professional status. In it, they found that the productivity of female economists – as measured by the output of research papers – has fallen relative to that of men since the pandemic began.

And what of these young people that are no longer in school? With what has become a significant and growing hole in their education, what does their future hold?

The switch to remote learning will widen the divide between students from affluent and poorer families. While connection speeds have been improving, there are still plenty of places where access to the internet is sketchy. More significant is the fact that not every family can afford a computer for every child.

But even among those who have the means, anecdotal evidence suggests many aren’t tuning into online classrooms. Without some kind of radical catch-up programme, we’re going to have to accept that a whole generation will have gaps in their learning. The ramifications for their earning potential – not to mention the viability of the future labour force – can at this time only be guessed at.

Containing Covid-19 and raising the economy from its knees are the most pressing concerns of the moment. But if that isn’t immediately backed up by every effort to create a recovery for all, the historic events of 2020 risk becoming a footnote to some other cataclysm further down the line.