ILO "225 Million Jobs Lost Due to COVID-19... Four Times More Than During the Financial Crisis"

by Park Pyunghee

Published 26 Jan.2021 10:00(KST)

[Image source= Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Byunghee Park] The International Labour Organization (ILO) revealed that the number of jobs lost due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) is four times greater than during the 2008 global financial crisis.

According to AP News and others on the 25th (local time), the ILO announced that the estimated number of jobs lost due to the impact of COVID-19 is about 225 million. The ILO explained that last year, due to economic lockdowns and restrictions on daily life caused by COVID-19, 8.8% of total working hours worldwide disappeared.

The ILO stated that women and young people were the most severely affected and analyzed that the job losses caused by COVID-19 likely led to a global income reduction of $3.7 trillion.

The ILO expects job recovery to show an upward trend in the second half of this year but added that this could vary depending on COVID-19 infection rates and vaccination status.

Guy Ryder, ILO Director-General, said that last year saw the most severe job crisis since the Great Depression, and that the impact of COVID-19, which caused reduced working hours and unprecedented unemployment, was much greater than during the 2009 financial crisis.