World Employment and Social Outlook – Trends 2022: Global unemployment projected to stand at 207 million in 2022: ILO

What is the News?

The International Labour Organisation(ILO) has released the World Employment and Social Outlook – Trends 2022.

The report examines the impacts of the Covid-19 crisis on global and regional trends in employment, unemployment and labour force participation as well as on job quality, informal employment and working poverty. 

What are the key findings of the World Employment and Social Outlook – Trends 2022?

Unemployment: Global unemployment is projected to stand at 207 million in 2022. This is 21 million more than in 2019 before the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic began.

Working Hours: Global working hours in 2022 will be almost 2% below their pre-pandemic level — that is equivalent to the loss of 52 million full-time jobs.

Global Labour Force: In 2022, around 40 million people will no longer be participating in the global labour force.

Poverty: a) In 2020, an additional 30 million adults fell into extreme poverty (living on less than $1.90 per day in purchasing power parity) while being out of paid work b) The number of extreme working poor — workers who do not earn enough through their work to keep themselves and their families above the poverty line — rose by eight million.

Vaccine Inequality: Many low and middle-income countries have low access to vaccines and limited scope to expand government budgets to address the crisis. Thus, these countries are struggling more than high-income ones to get back to pre-pandemic levels of employment and job quality.

Impact on Sectors: Some sectors such as travel and tourism have been particularly hard hit, while other sectors such as those related to information technology have thrived.

Impact on women and Young Children: Women have been worse hit by the labour market crisis than men, and this is likely to continue. The closing of education and training institutions will also have long-term implications for young people, particularly those without internet access.

Source:  This post is based on the article ‘Global unemployment projected to stand at 207 million in 2022: ILO’ published in Down To Earth on 19th January 2022.