Lost hours1
In 2020, working hours dropped by 8.8% globally due to cuts in time and job losses. These were on top of an already depressed jobs market.
The pinch
Workers around the world took pay cuts to stay in work, with the lowest paid most affected and women losing more than men.2
- 266m workers earn below hourly minimum wages.
- 57m workers live in countries without minimum wage systems.2
Compared with 2019, 108 million more workers now earn less than $3.20 ppp* a day.1
State support
Whereas some wealthy countries could afford wage subsidies, in poorer nations support was much more modest.
Most vulnerable1
Informal workers
- 2bn workers, 60.1% of the global total, were working informally (ie lacking labour rights), in 2019.
- 3X more likely to lose their jobs during the pandemic than those formally employed.
- 85% of all workers in sub-Saharan Africa are informal.
Women and youth
- Nearly 90% of women who lost their jobs during the pandemic are still out of work. Young people saw a 2.5X greater drop in employment than adults.
- In North Africa, 14.2% of young women lost their jobs.
Migrant workers
- Often first to lose their jobs, many of the world’s 164m migrant workers were left stranded.
Child labour
- School closures and parental poverty were push factors into work.
- In 2020, 160m children (or 1 in 10) were working: 93m boys and 63m girls.3
Billionaire wealth surge4
- $5.5 trillion/68% – increase in wealth of the world’s 2,690 billionaires, March 2020-July 2021. This is more than the wealth accrued by billionaires in the preceding 15 years.
- $4.4 trillion – what it would cost to give a one-off $20,000 cash grant to all currently unemployed workers.
- ILO, World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2021, June 2021, nin.tl/ILO-employ
- ILO, Global Wage Report 2020-21, December 2020, nin.tl/ILO-wage
- ILO, ‘Child Labour: Global estimates 2020’, nin.tl/ILO-CL
- Chuck Collins, ‘Global billionaires see $5.5 trillion wealth surge’, Institute for Policy Studies, 11 August 2021, nin.tl/wealth-surge