ILO downgrades labour market recovery forecast for 2022

• The ILO’s World Employment and Social Outlook Trends 2022 report warns of a slow and uncertain recovery, as the pandemic continues to have a significant impact on global labour markets.
• The COVID-19 pandemic prevented a full and balanced recovery of labour markets in 2021
• Global unemployment is projected to stand at 207 million in 2022.

World Employment and Social Outlook trends 2022 Report

• It is the flagship report of the International Labour Organisation (ILO)
• Its theme is ‘The role of digital labour platforms in transforming the world of work’
• The report looks at how the crisis has affected global and regional employment, unemployment, and labour force participation patterns, as well as job quality, informal employment, and working poor.
• It also includes a detailed review of temporary employment trends prior to and throughout the COVID-19 crisis.

Findings of the report

• Working hours: It has projected a deficit in hours worked globally equivalent to 52 million full-time jobs.
• While this latest projection is an improvement on the situation in 2021, it remains almost two per cent below the number of global hours worked pre-pandemic time
• Unemployment: Global unemployment is expected to remain above pre-COVID-19 levels until at least 2023.
• The 2022 level is estimated at 207 million, compared to 186 million in 2019.
• The report also cautions that the overall impact on employment is significantly greater than represented in these figures because many people have left the labour force.
• Impact on women: The disproportionate impact of the crisis on women’s employment is expected to last in the coming years
• Impact on young people: long term closure of education and training institutions will have cascading long-term implications for young people, particularly those without internet access.
• Poverty: an additional 30 million adults fell into extreme poverty in 2020(living on less than $1.90 per day in purchasing power parity) while being out of paid work
• 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: The low and middle-income countries have low access to vaccines and limited scope to expand government budgets to address the crisis induced by pandemic
• 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: service sectors such as travel and tourism have been particularly hard hit, while other sectors such as those related to information technology have flourished

Suggestions of the report

• A broad-based labour market recovery is required; the recovery must be human-centred, inclusive, long-term, and resilient.
• The recovery must be built on decent work principles, such as health and safety, equity, social protection, and social dialogue.

About International Labour Organisation

• It is the UN's earliest and oldest specialised agency, having been established in 1919 under the League of Nations.
• Its mission is to promote social and economic fairness by establishing international labour standards.
• It has 187 members, including 186 of the 193 UN members and the Cook Islands.
• Its international labour standards strive to ensure that employment is accessible, productive, and sustainable across the world in conditions of freedom, fairness, security, and dignity.