World Employment And Social Outlook – Trends (WESO Trends) 2022: ILO
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) released a report titled World Employment and Social Outlook – Trends (WESO Trends) 2022.
- The Outlook remains fragile because the future path of the pandemic remains uncertain.
- The WESO Trends includes comprehensive labour market projections for 2022 and 2023.
- It gives assessments of how labour market recovery has unfolded worldwide, reflecting different national approaches to pandemic recovery and analysing the effects on different groups of workers and economic sectors.
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.
Global Working Hours:
- In 2022, it will be almost 2% below their pre-pandemic level — that is equivalent to the loss of 52 million full-time jobs. This deficit is twice as large as the ILO’s forecast in 2021.
Global Labour Force Participation:
- It is estimated that in 2022 around 40 million people will no longer be participating in the global labour force.
Regional Differences: - The impact has been particularly serious for developing nations that experienced higher levels of inequality, more divergent working conditions and weaker social protection systems even before the pandemic.
- Many low and middle-income countries have low access to vaccines and limited scope to expand government budgets to address the crisis.
Starkly Different Impacts:
- The report warns of stark differences in the impact that the crisis is having across groups of workers and countries – deepening inequalities within and among nations – while weakening the economic, financial and social fabric of almost every State, regardless of development status.
- The damage is likely to require years to repair, with potential long-term consequences for labour forces, household incomes, and social and possibly political cohesion.
Different Sectors:
- Some sectors, such as travel and tourism have been particularly hard hit, while other sectors such as those related to information technology have thrived.
Impact on Women and Young Population:
- Women have been worse hit by the labour market crisis than men and this is likely to continue.
- The closing of education and training institutions will have long-term implications for young people, particularly those without internet access.
Expected Recovery:
- There can be no real recovery from this pandemic without a broad-based labour market recovery.
- Sustainable recovery is possible, but it must be based on the principles of decent work, including health and safety, equity, social protection, and social dialogue.
- The new labour market forecast can be vital for policy planning for a country like India, where most of the work is informal, to prevent further employment losses and reductions in working hours.
