Slow jobs recovery risks long-term Covid-19 scarring

Loss of employment and crises in labour market posed by the Covid-19 pandemic is going to affect economies until 2023, according to a new assessment by the International Labour Organization.

The ILO in its assessment said that employment growth across the world will be insufficient to make up for the losses suffered in the next couple of years.

The assessments were published in a report titled ‘World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2021’.

ILO projects the global crisis-induced jobs gap or employment gap to reach 75 million in 2021, before falling to 23 million in 2022.

In consequence, global unemployment is expected to stand at 205 million people in 2022, corresponding to an unemployment rate of 5.7 per cent, the report further said.

The worst affected regions in the first half of 2021 have been Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe and Central Asia, the WESO Trends said.

The fall in employment and hours worked has translated into a sharp drop in labour income and a corresponding rise in poverty, it added.

Compared to 2019, an additional 108 million workers worldwide are now categorized as poor or extremely poor, the report said, adding that this renders the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goal of eradicating poverty by 2030 even more elusive.

“We need a comprehensive and coordinated strategy, based on human-centred policies, and backed by action and funding. There can be no real recovery without a recovery of decent jobs,” ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder said in the report.