ILO estimates that many newly created jobs will be unproductive and of poor quality

The International Labour Organization (ILO) states that the employment growth expected this year will be insufficient to fill the gaps opened by the crisis generated by the pandemic, and to add insult to injury, many of the newly created jobs are expected to be unproductive and of poor quality.

In the report “World Employment and Social Outlook. Trends 2021,” the ILO highlights that between 2019 and 2022, the average rate of labor productivity growth is expected to fall below the pre-crisis rate in all countries except high-income countries.

As a result of the low growth of gross domestic product and the sharp increase in the working-age population, the lack of productive employment offers will be more pronounced in low-income countries.

“In these countries, the average annual growth of labor productivity is expected to decrease, going from an already meager 0.9% for the period 2016-2019 to a negative rate of – 1.1% for 2019-2022,” the report states.

ILO analysts say these dialyzing forecasts further hamper the goal of eradicating poverty by 2030, and the increase in self-employment, which is disproportionately characterized by low productivity and everyday work, is another sign of the deterioration in the quality of work.

Globally, it is estimated that in 2020 job destruction among salaried workers was twice as high as in the self-employed, which will cause a change in the structure of employment.