The organization’s report shows that some 205 million people are expected to still be unemployed in 2022.
The COVID-19 pandemic has plunged more than 100 million wage earners further into poverty as a result of lost working hours and access to good quality jobs, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said on Wednesday.
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This crisis is far from over and employment is not expected to return to its pre-pandemic level until 2023, the International Labor Organization warns in its annual report.
By the end of 2021, the world will still have 75 million fewer jobs than if the pandemic had not occurred. And even by the end of 2022, this backlog will not be covered, with 23 million jobs cut by the health crisis that has already killed more than 3.5 million people.
“Recovering from COVID-19 is not only a health problem,” said ILO Director General Guy Ryder, stressing that “it will also be necessary to overcome the serious damage caused to economies and societies.”
“Without an effort to accelerate the creation of decent jobs and support the most vulnerable members of societies and the reactivation of the most affected economic sectors, the effects of the pandemic could be suffered for years in the form of loss of human and economic potential. and greater poverty and inequality ”, he predicts.
Hours evaporated
The ILO report shows that some 205 million people are expected to still be unemployed in 2022, well above the 187 million in 2019.
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However, these official statistics hide an even bleaker reality, as the total number of hours worked has also collapsed. In 2020, 8.8% of the hours worked evaporated compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, that is, the equivalent of 255 million full-time jobs.
Even if the economic recovery is achieved in some parts of the world, by the end of the year the equivalent of 100 million full-time jobs will still be missing. This deficit “is added to the high levels of unemployment, underemployment and poor working conditions”, which already prevailed before the health crisis.
Follow the news of El Espectador on Google NewsAlthough the employment situation is expected to improve somewhat during the second half of this year, the recovery will be uneven, mainly due to the gap in vaccination rates between different countries.
Emerging nations will also face difficulties in putting in place consistent recovery plans.
“Poverty at work”
Fewer jobs and hours worked automatically translate into greater poverty.
Compared to 2019, 108 million workers have fallen into the categories of poor or very poor, which means that the households that depend on them have to live on less than US $ 3.2 a day.
For the 2 billion people who work in the informal sector, the consequences of the pandemic have been catastrophic, especially for women who left the labor market en masse, even in rich countries, to take care of children deprived of school.
A phenomenon that makes the ILO fear that a “retraditionalization” of gender roles is being reached.
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