"US Heatwaves to Cause $500 Billion Annual Losses by 2050"
NYT Report
"Labor Loss of 2.5 Billion Hours Due to Heatwave Two Years Ago"
Productivity Drops 70% When Temperature Reaches 37.7°C
Amid severe heatwaves causing strikes, resignations, and reduced working hours in the United States, it is projected that labor losses due to heatwaves will increase to an annual scale of $500 billion (approximately 641 trillion KRW) by 2050.
On the 31st of last month (local time), the New York Times (NYT) cited reports from academic journals such as The Lancet, reporting that in 2021, more than 2.5 billion hours of labor were lost due to heatwaves in the U.S. agriculture, construction, manufacturing, and service sectors.
Heatwaves are adversely affecting the working conditions of laborers at construction sites, fields, factories, and other workplaces, lowering productivity across the economy. For example, at the National Beef slaughterhouse in Dodge City, Kansas, nearly 200 of the 2,500 employees have resigned since May, which is about 10% more than the same period last year.
According to another report, labor losses due to heatwaves cost about $100 billion (approximately 128 trillion KRW) in 2020. This figure is expected to continue rising, reaching $500 billion annually by 2050.
Research also shows that when temperatures reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32.2 degrees Celsius), productivity drops by 25%, and when exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.7 degrees Celsius), productivity falls by 70%. Damage caused by heatwaves tends to be more concentrated among the poor than the wealthy. Workers in relatively low-income areas saw their daily wages decrease by up to 5% during heatwaves, while those in high-income areas experienced only a 1% reduction.
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Professor R. Jiseong, an environmental and labor economist at the University of Pennsylvania, told the NYT, "It is well known that humans are sensitive to temperature and that exposure to heat reduces productivity," adding, "But with this heatwave, we are learning that heatwaves hamper the economy in more ways than previously expected."
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