The
United Nations agency forecast the outlook improving to 205
million unemployed next year - still well above the 187 million
recorded in 2019 before the coronavirus crisis wreaked havoc.
According to ILO models, that equates to a global unemployment
rate of 6.3% this year, falling to 5.7% next year but still up
on the pre-pandemic rate of 5.4% in 2019.
"Employment growth will be insufficient to make up for the
losses suffered until at least 2023," the ILO said in a report,
World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2021.
Stefan Kuehn, ILO economist and lead author of the report, told
Reuters that the true impact on the labour market was even
greater when reduced working hours imposed on many workers and
other factors were accounted for.
All told, it estimated that working hours losses in 2020
relative to 2019 amounted to the equivalent of 144 million
full-time jobs in 2020, a shortfall that still stood at 127
million in the second quarter of this year.
"Unemployment does not capture the impact on the labour market,"
Kuehn said, noting that whereas hiring in the United States had
resumed after massive job losses, many workers elsewhere,
particularly in Europe, remained on reduced-hours schemes.
Women, young people and the 2 billion people working in informal
sectors have been hardest hit, with 108 million more workers
worldwide now categorized as poor or extremely poor compared to
2019, it said.
"Five years of progress towards the eradication of working
poverty have been undone," the report said.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Mark John and Jan
Harvey)
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