New Delhi: 1.6 billion workers in the unorganized sector across the world have faced the crisis of losing employment after the Covid-19 pandemic dropped.
This number is equivalent to half of the total workforce globally. The International Labor Organization (ILO) said that more than 43 crore enterprises are highly affected including retail and manufacturing sectors.
This information was published in the third edition of ILO Monitor ‘Covid-19 and the world of work’ on Wednesday. There are around 3.3 billion workers globally. There are about two billion jobs in the unorganized economy and these are the workers who are most at risk of losing their jobs.
More than 430 million enterprises in hard-hit sectors such as retail and manufacturing risk “serious disruption”, the UN agency added.The findings appear in the ILO Monitor third edition: COVID-19 and the world of work, released Wednesday.Globally, there are some 3.3 billion workers. Two billion have jobs in the informal economy, the most vulnerable workers in the labour market.
The agency said 1.6 billion in the informal economy “have suffered massive damage to their capacity to earn a living” as a result of the economic meltdown triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Due to lockdowns or because they work in hard-hit sectors, these workers globally have seen a 60% drop in income during the first month of the crisis, according to ILO estimates.
This translates into a more than 80% decline in Africa and the Americas, 70% in Europe and Central Asia, and 21.6% in Asia and the Pacific, the ILO said.
ILO Director General Guy Ryder said as the pandemic and the jobs crisis evolve, the need to protect the world’s most vulnerable workers becomes even more urgent.
“For millions of workers, no income means no food, no security and no future. Millions of businesses around the world are barely breathing. They have no savings or access to credit,” he said.
“These are the real faces of the world of work. If we don’t help them now, they will simply perish.”
The UN agency estimated that compared to the pre-crisis levels, there will be a 10.5% deterioration in working hours during the second quarter (Q2) of the year, equivalent to 305 million full-time jobs. Previous projections had put the figure at 6.7%, or 195 million full-time workers.
The situation has worsened for all major regions, again compared to pre-crisis levels. Q2 estimates suggest a 12.4% loss of working hours in the Americas, and 11.8% for Europe and Central Asia. All other regions are above 9.5%.
The ILO added that the proportion of workers living in countries where workplace closures have been recommended, or required, has decreased from 81% to 68% over the past two weeks.
While this is largely due to changes in China, measures have been stepped up elsewhere.
At the same time, 436 million enterprises operating in wholesale and retail, manufacturing, accommodation, and other economic sectors that have been hardest hit, face “high risks of serious disruption”.
The ILO called for “urgent, targeted and flexible measures” to support both workers and business, particularly smaller enterprises and those in the informal economy.
