Global employment growth might deteriorate significantly in the final quarter of 2022 amid conflicts and crises like hyperinflation, tightening monetary policy, increasing debt and declining consumer confidence, reveals a report.
Rising inflation causes real wages to fall in many countries. This comes atop significant declines in income during the pandemic that mostly affected low-income groups, according to the ILO report.
The 10th edition of the 'ILO Monitor on the World of Work' launched on Monday said multiple and overlapping economic and political crises are threatening labour market recovery globally.
The number of global hours worked was recovering strongly at the beginning of 2022, but the situation has deteriorated in the last couple of months, it said.
The level of hours worked was 1.5 per cent below pre-pandemic levels in the third quarter of 2022, amounting to a deficit of 40 million full-time jobs.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that hours worked in South Asia in the third quarter was 2.2 per cent below pre-pandemic levels, equivalent to 14.6 million full-time jobs.
However, in the second quarter, hours worked in South Asia was 2.0 per cent below pre-pandemic levels, equivalent to 13.3 million full-time jobs, it showed.
In 2021, hours worked in Bangladesh was 6.2 per cent below the level of Q4 2019 (the pre-crisis benchmark), equivalent to a deficit of 4.1-million full-time jobs.
In 2020, hours worked in Bangladesh were 12 per cent below the pre-pandemic levels, equivalent to 7.91-million full-time jobs, it showed.
The encouraging recovery in hours worked seen at the beginning of 2022 has not continued, although regions and income groups continue to differ significantly.
Asia and the Pacific registered a decline of 1.2-percentage points in the second quarter of 2022 and, thereafter, saw a moderate improvement of 0.6-percentage points, as activity in China began to recover after it partially lifted lockdowns.
"Comprehensive, integrated and balanced policies both nationally and globally were required to tackle the deeply worrying global employment situation," ILO director-general Gilbert F Houngbo said in a statement.
"We need a strong commitment to initiatives such as the UN Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection, which would help countries create 400-million jobs and extend social protection to 4.0-billion people who are currently unprotected."
The report, however, called for social dialogue to be used to create the policies necessary to counter the labour-market downturn.
munni_fe@yahoo.com