The COVID-19 recession, also known as the coronavirus recession, the Great Shutdown, or the Great Lockdown, is a major global recession which arose as an economic consequence of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The first major sign of the recession was the 2020 stock market crash on 20 February, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported on 14 April that all of the G7 nations had already entered or were entering into a "deep recession" and that there had already been a significant slowdown of growth in emerging economies. IMF projections suggest that this recession will be the most severe global economic downturn since the Great Depression, and that it will be "far worse" than the Great Recession of 2009.

The pandemic has led to more than a third of the world's population being placed on lockdown to stop the spread of COVID-19. It has caused severe repercussions for economies across the world, following soon after a global economic slowdown during 2019 that saw stagnation of stock markets and consumer activity worldwide.

This recession has seen unusually high and rapid increases in unemployment in many countries, and the inability in the United States for state-funded unemployment insurance computer systems and processes to keep up with applications. The United Nations (UN) predicted in April 2020 that global unemployment will wipe out 6.7 percent of working hours globally in the second quarter of 2020—equivalent to 195 million full-time workers. In western nations, unemployment is expected to be at around 10%, with more severely affected nations from the COVID-19 pandemic having higher unemployment rates. The developing world is also being affected by a drop in remittances, exacerbating the global food crisis.