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Four times as many jobs were lost last year due to the coronavirus pandemic as during the worst part of the global financial crisis in 2009, a UN report said on Monday. The International Labor Organization estimated that the restrictions on businesses and public life last year destroyed 8.8% of all working hours around the world. That equates to 255 million full-time jobs, doubling the impact of the financial crisis more than ten years ago, reports AP. “It was the worst crisis for the world of work since the Great Depression in the 1930s. Its impact is far greater than that of the global financial crisis in 2009,” said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder. The dropout was nearly equally divided between reduced working hours and an unprecedented job loss, he said.
The United Nations agency noted that most people who have lost their jobs have stopped looking for work altogether, probably due to restrictions on businesses that rent in large numbers, such as restaurants, bars, shops, hotels and other services that depend on interaction. The drop in jobs translates into a $ 3.7 billion loss of revenue worldwide – which Ryder calls an ‘extraordinary figure’ – with women and young people hitting the biggest hits. The ILO report expects work to return in the second half of the year. But it depends on the reduction of coronavirus infections and the deployment of vaccines. At present, infections are still on the rise or are still high in many countries and the spread of vaccines is generally slow. (The pandemic has contributed to China’s economy moving fast towards the US.)