The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said about four hundred million full time jobs were lost worldwide in the second quarter of 200 due to COVID-19 pandemic.
ILO Director General Guy Ryder said this at a meeting with G20 labour and employment ministers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
To this end, Ryder commended the commitment of the G20 Labour and Employment Ministers to a job-centric focus for recovery plans, promoting decent work for all, especially women and youth due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The meeting took place against the backdrop of unprecedented turmoil in global labour markets, with a decline in working hours equivalent to the loss of 400 million full-time jobs worldwide in the second quarter of 2020.
Over 1.6 billion workers in the informal economy, and youth, women and persons with disabilities have been among the worst hit.
The ministers reaffirmed their determination to use social dialogue and to work with other ministers to ensure policy coherence in constructing effective, inclusive and sustainable response measures, in a declaration issued at the end of their one-day virtual meeting.
“It is critical and urgent for the G20 to take large-scale coordinated measures to respond to the impact of COVID-19 on labour markets and societies, and the Labour and Employment Ministers have pledged to do exactly that,” said Ryder.
“We need solidarity, commitment and vision on a global scale. Furthermore the G20 has a unique opportunity to adopt policies to counter the inequalities exposed by COVID-19, and create the foundations for the better, fairer systems that people are demanding.
“The G20 has a unique opportunity to adopt policies to counter the inequalities exposed by COVID-19, and create the foundations for the better, fairer systems that people are demanding,” he said.
Ryder addressed the G20 Labour and Employment Ministers meeting, which was hosted by Saudi Arabia September 10, to update the ministers on global labour market developments, the impact of COVID-19, as well as progress made towards the achievement of the G20 Brisbane goal to reduce the gender gap in labour market participation by 25 per cent by 2025.
