The COVID-19 pandemic defeated the labor market in the world and it will recover until 2023; At least 220 million people will remain unemployed this year, and it is estimated that more than 100 million wage earners have been left in poverty due to loss of working hours and access to good quality jobs, the International Labor Organization (ILO) reported this morning. .
“Employment growth will be insufficient to offset the losses suffered until at least 2023,” the ILO said in the report “World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2021”.
The true impact on the labor market is even greater when the reduction in working hours imposed on many workers and other factors are taken into account, Stefan Kuehn, an ILO economist and lead author of the report, told Reuters.
In total, it estimated that lost work hours in 2020 relative to 2019 amounted to the equivalent of 144 million full-time jobs in 2020, a deficit that stood at 127 million in the second quarter of this year.
“Unemployment does not capture the impact on the labor market,” Kuehn said, noting that while hiring in the United States resumed after a massive job loss, many workers elsewhere, particularly in Europe, remained in employment schemes reduced hours.
Women, youth and the 2 billion people working in the informal sector have been hit the hardest, with 108 million more workers worldwide now classified as poor or extremely poor compared to 2019, he said.
By the end of 2021, the world will still have 75 million fewer jobs that would not have taken place without the pandemic. 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.
“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 increased poverty and inequality, “said ILO Director General Guy Ryder.
Be poor, still with work
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.
“Five years of progress toward eradicating working poverty have been undone,” the report said.
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.
Although 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.
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 $ 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 “re-traditionalization” of gender roles is being reached.
With information from Reuters and AFP.
