The coronavirus crisis wiped out the equivalent of nearly half a million jobs around the world by the end of June, according to a new study by a United Nations agency.
And the bleeding doesn’t look close to stopping anytime soon.
When the numbers are tallied for the third quarter ended in September, the equivalent of another 345 million jobs are likely to have been lost, based on a reduction in the number of hours worked, the International Labour Organization (ILO) reports in its study.
That represents a decline in hours worked of more than 17 percent for the second quarter and another 12 percent in the third quarter, according to the ILO.
Still, workers across the globe have seen a somewhat less sharp drop in their overall incomes, in part due to coronavirus stimulus packages passed by the United States and other countries across the world.
The amount of money coming into to working households across the world dropped 10.7 percent during the first three quarters of 2020 compared to 2019, for a total loss if income of more than $3.5 trillion, the ILO reports.
“Just as we need to redouble our efforts to beat the virus, so we need to act urgently and at scale to overcome its economic, social and employment impacts,” said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder in a Wednesday (Sept. 23) press release. “That includes sustaining support for jobs, businesses and incomes.”
“Lower-middle income” countries took the biggest hit, reporting a more than 15 percent decline in workers’ incomes, with the Americas the hardest hit region in this regard, with a drop of more than 12 percent.
Meanwhile, the fourth quarter is shaping up to be a brutal one when it comes to the loss of working hours and income, the International Labour Organization reports.
Total working hours are projected to drop by 8.6 percent across the world during the last three months of 2020, or the equivalent of 245 million full-time jobs.
That’s up from ILO’s previous estimate for the quarter, which estimated a just under 5 percent drop in working hours globally, or the equivalent of 140 million lost jobs.
