世界の働く貧困層、コロナ禍で１億人増加　国連報告書

【ジュネーブＡＦＰ＝時事】国連の国際労働機関（ＩＬＯ）は２日、新型コロナウイルスのパンデミック（世界的な大流行）に伴う労働時間の大幅短縮と質の高い雇用の喪失により、世界のワーキングプア（働く貧困層）の数が１億人余り増えたとする報告書を発表した。（写真はインドの首都ニューデリーで、新型コロナウイルス流行を受けたロックダウン＜都市封鎖＞措置により職を失い、炊き出しに並ぶ人々）
　ＩＬＯは年次報告書「世界の雇用および社会の見通し」で、コロナ禍で労働市場に起きた危機は終息には程遠いと警告。雇用が以前の水準に戻るのは早くても２０２３年だとの見通しを示した。
　報告書によると、新型ウイルス流行が起きなかった場合と比べた雇用の減少は今年末に７５００万人分に達し、来年末も２３００万人分が減少した状態になる見通し。２０２２年の失業者数は、２０１９年の１億８７００万人を大きく上回る２億５００万人に達すると予想される。
　本人とその家族が１日１人当たり３．２０ドル（約３５０円）未満で生活する貧困層および極度の貧困層に分類される労働者は、２０１９年に比べ１億８００万人増加。記者会見したＩＬＯのガイ・ライダー事務局長は、労働時間の短縮と社会保障の不足によりワーキングプアが「劇的に」増加したと指摘。また、児童労働と強制労働との闘いにおいても、数十年分の進歩が逆戻りしてしまったようだと述べた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/06/03-13:15）

The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed more than 100 million more workers into poverty, the UN said Wednesday, after working hours plummeted and access to good-quality jobs evaporated.
And the labour market crisis created by the pandemic was far from over, the UN's International Labour Organization warned in a report.
Employment was not expected to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels until 2023 at the earliest, it said.
The ILO's annual World Employment and Social Outlook report indicated that the planet would be 75 million jobs short at the end of this year compared to if the pandemic had not occurred.
And it would still have 23 million fewer jobs by the end of next year than would otherwise have been the case.
Covid-19 has not just been a public health crisis, it's also been an employment and human crisis, ILO chief Guy Ryder told reporters.
Without a deliberate effort to accelerate the creation of decent jobs, and support the most vulnerable members of society and the recovery of the hardest-hit economic sectors, the lingering effects of the pandemic could be with us for years in the form of lost human and economic potential, and higher poverty and inequality.
- Working hours slashed -
The report showed that global unemployment was expected to stand at 205 million people in 2022 -- far higher than the 187 million in 2019.
But the situation is worse than official unemployment figures indicate.
Many people have held onto their jobs but have seen their working hours cut dramatically.
In 2020, 8.8 percent of global working hours were lost compared to the fourth quarter of 2019 -- the equivalent of 255 million full-time jobs.
While the situation has improved, global working hours are far from having bounced back, and the world will still be short the equivalent of 100 million full-time jobs by the end of this year, the report found.
Global employment is expected to recover more quickly in the second half of 2021 -- provided the overall pandemic situation does not worsen.
But that recovery would be highly uneven, the ILO warned, due to inequitable access to Covid-19 vaccines. So far, more than 75 percent of all the jabs have gone to just 10 countries.
- 'Working poverty' -
The limited capacity of most developing and emerging economies to support strong fiscal stimulus measures will also take its toll, the ILO said. In those countries, it said, the quality of newly created jobs would likely deteriorate.
The fall in employment and hours worked has meanwhile translated into a sharp drop in labour income and a rise in poverty.
Compared to 2019, 108 million more workers around the world were categorised as poor or extremely poor, meaning they and their families live on less than $3.20 per person per day, the study showed.
For many millions of people, the working hour losses combined with a lack or absence of social protection had sparked an absolutely dramatic increase in working poverty, Ryder said.
Five years of progress towards eradicating working poverty had been undone.
Tragically, he said, the crisis also appeared to have reversed decades of progress battling child labour and forced labour.
The report highlighted how the Covid-19 crisis had worsened pre-existing inequalities by hitting vulnerable workers harder.
- Economic 'long Covid' -
For many of the two billion people who work in the informal sector, where social protections are generally lacking, the disruption has had catastrophic consequences for family incomes and livelihoods.
The crisis has also disproportionately hit women, who have fallen out of the labour market at a greater rate than men, even as they have taken on more of the additional burden of caring for out-of-school children and others.
This, the report warned, had created the risk of a re-traditionalisation of gender roles.
Youth employment meanwhile fell 8.7 percent last year -- more than double the 3.7 percent for older workers.
The consequences of this delay and disruption to the early labour market experience of young people could last for years, the ILO said.
Ryder cautioned that without decisive action, the Covid-19 crisis could scar the global labour market long-term, just as the disease appears to have devastating, drawn-out health consequences for some people.
Long Covid could become an economic and social phenomenon, not just a medical one, he warned.