UN body warns nearly half of global workers' jobs in danger amid COVID-19 crisis

As the deadly coronavirus outbreak continues to impact countries across the world, the UN body has said that nearly half of the entire global workforce currently faces the danger of losing their jobs. The International Labour Organisation report has said that since in the wake of the pandemic, there has been a sharp plunge in the working hours globally, threatening jobs of nearly 1.6 billion workers of the informal economy. Further raising concerns, the UN body has said that the drop in working hours in the second quarter of 2020 is worse than what was initially expected. 

In the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, in a bid to practice social distancing organisations around the world have switched to teleworking, putting jobs that can not afford to work remotely in danger. Over 430 million enterprises in the sectors that have been worst affected by the global health crisis including retail and manufacturing risk “serious disruption”. These findings were predicted by ILO in its third edition of coronavirus and the “world of work” released on April 29. 

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ILO calls for urgent measures

Along with stating the main concerns of dangers that the global workforce face due to the pandemic, the United Nations body has called for an “urgent, targeted, and flexible” measures that can support the employees especially small enterprises, workers in the informal economy among others who are vulnerable. 

"For millions of workers, no income means no food, no security and no future. As the pandemic and the jobs crisis evolve, the need to protect the most vulnerable becomes even more urgent," Guy Ryder, ILO Director-General.

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He added, "Millions of businesses around the world are barely breathing. They have no savings or access to credit. These are the real faces of the world of work. If we don’t help them now, these enterprises will simply perish.”

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(Image Source: AP)