Global unemployment during Covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic has shaken the growth and efforts of decades in almost every country existing on earth. Governments and agencies’ data may be showing green signs, but real economic picture is gloomier in second year of outbreak. On the one hand humanity is striving to save itself from the wicked virus, on the other hand people are losing their sources of income. This has pushed millions of people into hand-to-mouth zone or even extreme poverty.
The Covid-linked economic slowdown is likely to account for over 200 million unemployed people globally next year, said UN labour report recently. Women and youth workers are going to be the worst sufferers of ongoing economic crisis, International Labour Organization (ILO) added. According to the report published by the UN agency, the world will move on from prevalent health crisis with time. However, five years of development towards the aim of poverty eradication will be undone.
Big-time backwards for economic sector
World has gone enormously backwards with returning to working poverty level of 2015, said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder. That means when the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda was set, we are again back to the starting point, he explained. Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and Central Asia have been worst crisis-ridden regions in 2021, facing uneven recovery. The data reflects Covid-linked ‘far-from-over’ labour market crisis in these regions.
These regions have seen rise in estimated working-hour losses by 8.0 percent in first quarter and 6.0 percent in second quarter this year. That surpasses significantly the global average of 4.8 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively. Further, economic crisis has hit the women “disproportionately”, with a 5.0 percent employment drop in 2020, higher in comparison to men who experienced 3.9 percent fall. Much larger women population has fell out of job market, with no hope of joining it again.
Women and youth hardest-hit by slowdown
Pandemic lockdowns have put additional domestic responsibilities on women with risks of “re-traditionalization” of gender roles, said ILO report. Furthermore, other major hit from economic slowdown is youth employment, dropping 8.7 percent in 2020, much higher in comparison to adults who faced 3.7 percent fall. Middle-income nations saw the most pronounced drop in jobs of young people, expected to last for years, ILO alerted. Informal sector workers faced the major burns.
The world’s two billion workers in informer sector are facing “catastrophic consequences” of pandemic-links slowdown. In comparison to 2019 numbers, 108 million more workers have now been pushed into “poor” or “extremely poor” categories globally. That means these workers and their families have to live on less than $3.20 per person a day. Despite signs of economic recovery due to extensive vaccination taking place, recovery would be uneven and fragile, said Ryder.
Global unemployment during Covid-19
The Geneva-based body projected global unemployment to reach 205 million of population in 2022, increased from 187 million of 2019. The ILO also forecasted a rise of 75 million in “jobs gap” in 2021, which may drop to 23 million next year if the pandemic ends. Moreover, the related fall in working-hours, including the jobs gap and people working fewer hours, is likely to be 100 million full-time jobs in this year and 26 million in 2022.
The UN labour agency head pointed the need of a deliberate effort to boost job creation. It emphasized on supporting the most vulnerable people and the recovery of worst affected economic sectors. Pandemic effects will be with us for years with human and economic losses, and poverty and inequality rise, Ryder said. He also expressed the need of a comprehensive and co-ordinated strategy formulated by human-centred policies, action and funding as recovery through decent jobs is real recovery.