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The ILO has warned that if another Covid-19 wave hits in the second half of 2020, there would be global working-hour loss of 11.9 percent - equivalent to the loss of 340 million full-time jobs.

According to the 5th edition of International Labour Organisation (ILO) Monitor: Covid-19 and the world of work, the recovery in the global labour market for the rest of the year will be uncertain and incomplete.

The report said that there was a 14 percent drop in global working hours during the second quarter of 2020, equivalent to the loss of 400 million full-time jobs.

The number of working hours lost across the world in the first half of 2020 was significantly worse than previously estimated. The highly uncertain recovery in the second half of the year will not be enough to go back to pre-pandemic levels even in the best scenario, the agency warned.

The baseline model – which assumes a rebound in economic activity in line with existing forecasts, the lifting of workplace restrictions and a recovery in consumption and investment – projects a decrease in working hours of 4.9 percent (equivalent to 140 million full-time jobs) compared to last quarter of 2019.

It says that in the pessimistic scenario, the situation in the second half of 2020 would remain almost as challenging as in the second quarter.

“Even if one assumes better-tailored policy responses – thanks to the lessons learned throughout the first half of the year – there would still be a global working-hour loss of 11.9 per cent at the end of 2020, or 340 million full-time jobs, relative to the fourth quarter of 2019,” it said.

The pessimistic scenario assumes a second pandemic wave and the return of restrictions that would significantly slow recovery. The optimistic scenario assumes that workers’ activities resume quickly, significantly boosting aggregate demand and job creation. With this exceptionally fast recovery, the global loss of working hours would fall to 1.2 per cent (34 million full-time jobs).

The agency said that under the three possible scenarios for recovery in the next six months, “none” sees the global job situation in better shape than it was before lockdown measures began.

“This is why we talk of an uncertain but incomplete recovery even in the best of scenarios for the second half of this year. So there is not going to be a simple or quick recovery,” ILO Director-General Guy Ryder said.

The new figures reflect the worsening situation in many regions over the past weeks, especially in developing economies. Regionally, working time losses for the second quarter were: Americas (18.3 percent), Europe and Central Asia (13.9 percent), Asia and the Pacific (13.5 percent), Arab States (13.2 percent), and Africa (12.1 percent).

The vast majority of the world’s workers (93 per cent) continue to live in countries with some sort of workplace closures, with the Americas experiencing the greatest restrictions.

During the first quarter of the year, an estimated 5.4 percent of global working hours (equivalent to 155 million full-time jobs) were lost relative to the fourth quarter of 2019. Working- hour losses for the second quarter of 2020 relative to the last quarter of 2019 are estimated to reach 14 per cent worldwide (equivalent to 400 million full-time jobs), with the largest reduction (18.3 per cent) occurring in the Americas.

The ILO Monitor also found that women workers have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, creating a risk that some of the modest progress on gender equality made in recent decades will be lost, and that work-related gender inequality will be exacerbated.

The severe impact of Covid-19 on women workers relates to their over-representation in some of the economic sectors worst affected by the crisis, such as accommodation, food, sales and manufacturing.

Globally, almost 510 million or 40 percent of all employed women work in the four most affected sectors, compared to 36.6 percent of men, it said.

The report said that women also dominate in the domestic work and health and social care work sectors, where they are at greater risk of losing their income and of infection and transmission and are also less likely to have social protection.

The pre-pandemic unequal distribution of unpaid care work has also worsened during the crisis, exacerbated by the closure of schools and care services.

Even as countries have adopted policy measures with unprecedented speed and scope, the ILO Monitor highlights some key challenges ahead, including finding the right balance and sequencing of health, economic and social and policy interventions to produce optimal sustainable labour market outcomes; implementing and sustaining policy interventions at the necessary scale when resources are likely to be increasingly constrained and protecting and promoting the conditions of vulnerable, disadvantaged and hard-hit groups to make labour markets fairer and more equitable.

“The decisions we adopt now will echo in the years to come and beyond 2030. Although countries are at different stages of the pandemic and a lot has been done, we need to redouble our efforts if we want to come out of this crisis in a better shape than when it started,” Ryder said. 

Bengaluru, Jan 24: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Friday said the much-delayed Cabinet expansion will take place in the next three days.

At the Kempegowda International Airport, after his arrival from Davos, he informed that he would discuss the matter with Union Home Minister Amit Shah to take a final decision on the distribution of important portfolios.

Deputy CM Ashwanath Narayna, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai and others received the Chief Minister at the airport. The issue of Cabinet expansion was kept in abeyance, ever since the spectacular victory of 12 Assembly seats for BJP, for which the by-elections were held recently. The bypolls were necessitated, following the resignation of about 17 sitting Congress and JD (S) MLAs, which resulted in the collapse of the JDS-Congress coalition government in the state.

BJP had reportedly lured the Congress and JD (S) MLAs into their camp, after promising them to give party ticket to contest the elections, as well as ministerial berths. The Chief Minister had kept as many as 16 Cabinet berths, along with plum portfolios, vacant, after forming the BJP government, with the support of the deserted Congress and JD (S) MLAs, in July last. However, the issue of Cabinet expansion had postponed on one reason or the other, as Yediyurappa was struggling to keep the promise he had made to the former Congress and the JDS MLAs, on whose sacrifice the BJP came back to power.

With the strong demand for ministerial berths within the loyal BJP MLAs, the BJP high command had reportedly advised Yediyurappa to accommodate only a few of the turncoat MLAs and strike balance between the groups.

However, Yediyurappa, who had assured the Congress and JD (S) MLAs of giving them Cabinet berths, had been in dilemma ever since and found it tough to convince the party's Central leaders.

According to party sources, the Chief Minister is not only facing problems over the expansion of his Cabinet, but is also worried over the demand for creation of more number of Deputy Chief Ministers, adding to the present list of three.