A study by the United Nations’ agency, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), reveals that the pandemic-like situation across the globe may take down with it about 1.25 billion sources of livelihood. The agency warns that the outbreak of the COVID-19 across the globe, and the drastic measures being adopted to check its spread will consume 6.7 per cent of working hours across the world. This is equivalent to about 195 million full-time workers.
As per the report, till about June, the Asia Pacific region will witness the maximum loss in terms of work hours, equalling about 125 million full-time jobs. More than four out of every five workers reside in a country presently going through partial or total lockdowns. This means, a significant 81 percent of the global workforce comprising 3.3 billion people is impacted.
Only two weeks ago, it was projected that about 25 million people would be rendered unemployed, but now a much higher number of people are expected to be rendered jobless. This will be in addition to the nearly 190 million people who were registered as jobless in 2019, even before the coronavirus outbreak happened.
The study terms this the worst crisis to affect the world, ever since World War II.
Huge losses are predicted across various income groups, particularly in the upper-middle income nations. As per the ILO, about 1.25 billion workers are presently working jobs in the ‘high risk’ sectors where the likelihood of layoffs and pay cuts is higher. Many of these workers will feel the impact of job loss more as they are already earning little and have low skill levels.
