Reuters
People who lost their jobs wait in line to file for unemployment following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease at an Arkansas Workforce Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas on April 6.
- A United Nations agency released a report on Tuesday forecasting a 7% drop in global working hours in the second quarter. A drop so severe represents roughly 195 million full-time jobs worldwide.
- The devastating report comes just three weeks after the agency said the coronavirus will wipe out 25 million jobs - Guy Ryder, the director of United Nations' International Labour Organization, now estimates 30 million jobs were lost in the first quarter of 2020 alone.
- Ryder said the "catastrophe" is evident in "both developed and developing countries," and will be more evident in certain sectors, like retail and food services.
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The coronavirus pandemic is already pushing the global economy toward recession, with job losses already erupting across many labor sectors within the US. And the United Nations' International Labour Organization (ILO) just said its going to get worse worldwide.
On Tuesday, the ILO said the coronavirus is expected to decimate global working hours by nearly 7% in the coming months - a dramatic dip equivalent to 195 million full-time jobs worldwide.
"Workers and businesses are facing catastrophe, in both developed an developing economies," said the ILO's Director-General, Guy Ryder. The ILO also said that four out of five people in the 3.3 billion-person global workforce are currently impacted by workplace closures.
Three weeks ago, the ILO initially forecasted global job loss to total 25 million at the end of 2020. It is now warning that the final figure could be substantially higher than the original projection. In the new report, Ryder estimated more than 30 million jobs were lost in the first quarter of 2020 alone.
He also said that certain sectors will bear the brunt of the collapse - singling out the retail, real estate, manufacturing, and food service industries. The ILO also estimated that 1.25 billion workers - or 38% of the total global workforce - are employed in these sectors.
In the US, a record-breaking 6.6 million people filed for unemployment in one week alone, and the economy has already plummeted to Great Recession lows.
Even still, Ryder pointed out the greatest concern lies with still developing countries. "If one country fails, then we all fail," Ryder said. "We must find solutions that help all segments of our global society, particularly those that are most vulnerable or least able to help themselves."
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