Job losses due to virus 4 times worse than the 2009 financial crisis

Four times more jobs were lost last year due to the coronavirus pandemic than during the worst period of the global financial crisis in 2009, a UN report said on Monday.

The International Labor Organization estimated that restrictions on business and public life destroyed 8.8% of all working hours worldwide last year. This equates to 255 million full-time jobs – quadruple the impact of the financial crisis over a decade ago.

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“This is the most serious crisis for the world of work since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Its impact is far greater than that of the global financial crisis of 2009,” said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder. The fallout was almost evenly split between reduced working hours and “unprecedented” job losses, he said.

People wearing protective masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus walk along crosswalks on January 25, 2021 in Tokyo. (AP Photo / Eugene Hoshiko)

The United Nations agency noted that most people who lost their jobs have stopped looking for jobs, possibly due to restrictions on companies that hire in large numbers such as restaurants, bars, shops, hotels. and other services that depend on face-to-face interactions.

The decline in work translates into a loss of $ 3.7 trillion in income around the world – what Ryder called an “extraordinary number” – with women and young people most affected.

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The ILO report expects employment to rebound in the second half of the year. But it depends on a reduction in coronavirus infections and the deployment of vaccines. Currently, infections are increasing or remain stubbornly high in many countries and vaccine distribution is still slow overall.