Reactivation of Latin American economies insufficient to recover 43 million jobs – ILO

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The reactivation of the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean is insufficient to recover the 43 million jobs lost since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, warned the International Labor Organization (ILO( on Wednesday(8) in Lima.

“The incipient economic recovery that has taken place, especially in the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year, has not been sufficiently reflected in the labor market,” ILO regional director for Latin America, Vinícius Pinheiro, told a press conference.

“Neither the quantity nor the quality of jobs that this region requires to cope with the aftermath of an unprecedented crisis is being generated,” he added as he presented a study on the impact of the pandemic on employment.

Pinheiro confirmed that up to 43 million jobs were destroyed during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, with only 29 million recovered between the second quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021.

“There are still 14 million to be recovered,” said Pinheiro, who stressed that the service sector was the hardest hit. “There is still a huge gap of jobs lost” that will not be closed “before 2024 and 2025,” he explained.

According to the study, informal occupations are leading the recovery of employment, but this is an unstable modality, with low wages and no labor rights. “Around 70% of the jobs that are being generated from mid-2020 to the first quarter of 2021 are informal occupations, according to data from a group of Latin American countries,” the ILO document highlights.

The report adds that women, young people, and people with lower qualifications have been disproportionately affected by the contraction of employment and income.

“In the case of women, there was a reversal in labor participation after decades during which there had been an increase in their incorporation into the labor force,” said the report’s author, Roxana Maurizio.

“Around 12 million female jobs were lost last year. In the region, we have seen a decline in female participation,” said the Argentine researcher. “It has been more than 15 years since such a low rate of women’s economic participation has been recorded,” she added.