07.07.2021 – 13:51
About 22 million fewer people are working in advanced economies than before the coronavirus pandemic, according to the OECD study which predicts labor markets will not recover until the end of next year.
Wealthy countries could face a steady rise in long-term unemployment, warned the report published by the OECD in Paris on Wednesday. This is because workers with disabilities who were more likely to lose their jobs at the beginning of the pandemic are poorly equipped to move to sectors where employment is stronger.
Businesses, meanwhile, are likely to recruit employees who are still supported through short-term job schemes before creating new jobs on the scale, risking a gap between those who have continued to work and those who have lost their jobs. and income, the OECD said in its annual employment perspective.
Of the 22 million people left unemployed across the OECD, 8 million are unemployed and 14 million are classified as inactive.
“A widening gap may develop between those who have coped with the crisis through reduced hours and shorter periods of temporary leave, and those who have found themselves unemployed – increasingly distant from the workforce, exhausting benefit rights and risking long-term wounds, ”the OECD said.
By the end of 2020, the number of people who had been unemployed for more than six months was 60 percent higher at pre-pandemic levels across OECD member countries.
“At the beginning of the crisis, low-skilled workers were more likely to lose their jobs. Highly skilled workers were more likely to reduce their working hours, ”said Stefano Scarpetta, OECD Director of Employment, Labor and Social Affairs.
The OECD said there was evidence that many of the jobs most affected by the pandemic were already at risk of being replaced by pre-crisis automation, and may now disappear as the adoption of digital technologies keeps pace. He noted sharp declines in job postings for secretaries in Australia, data entry clerks in Canada, and travel agents, word processors and typists in the US
The report noted increased demand for healthcare and green energy professionals in many affluent economies.
Scarpetta said this was proof that governments need to make job placement schemes more targeted to make sure they do not support businesses that are unlikely to survive in the open market. Governments should also provide incentives for businesses to create jobs and direct workers to sectors that are expanding through hiring subsidies, mobility rewards and coordinated efforts to help adults retrain, he said.
Translated and adapted for Konica.al by Financial Times
