Context: Recently, ILO projections under its annual World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2021 (WESO) report highlight the danger of a COVID-19 labour market legacy of increased geographic and demographic inequality, rising poverty and fewer decent jobs.

About the World Employment and Social Outlook report

• The report analyses key labour market issues including unemployment, labour underutilisation, working poverty, income inequality, labour income share and factors that exclude people from decent work.
• It highlights how the COVID-19 crisis had worsened pre-existing inequalities by hitting vulnerable workers harder.

Key Findings of report

• COVID-induced job loss: Covid-19 induced jobs loss will reach 75 million in 2021, before falling to 23 million in 2022.
• Further, people who have held onto their jobs have seen their working hours cut dramatically.
• Global Unemployment: Unemployment is expected to stand at 205 million people in 2022. This far greater than the 187 million in 2019. This corresponds to an unemployment rate of 5.7%.
• Poor quality of jobs: The quality of newly created jobs would likely deteriorate in developing and emerging economies.
• Increase in Poverty: Compared to 2019, an additional 108 million workers worldwide are now categorized as poor or extremely poor. This means they and their families live on the equivalent of less than US$3.20 per person per day.
• Women: Covid-19 crisis has hit women disproportionately. They have lost jobs at a greater rate than men. Moreover, additional domestic responsibilities for women from crisis lockdowns have created the risk of a “re-traditionalization” of gender roles.
• Child Labour: The crisis has also appeared to reverse the decade of progress in battling child labour and forced labour.

Recommendations

• Deliberate effort to accelerate the creation of decent jobs.
• Support the most vulnerable members of society.

The report cautions that in absence of any decisive action, COVID-crisis will impact the global labour market for the long term