If global players work together to contain the pandemic’s spread, job losses worldwide could clock in at 13 million, with 7.4 million of those losses coming from affluent nations. While warning that its estimates are “highly uncertain,” they still point to a “substantial rise in unemployment.”
These numbers compare with 22 million jobs that were vanquished during the 2008-2009 financial crisis. “In 2008, the world presented a united front to address the consequences of the global financial crisis, and the worst was averted,” says Guy Ryder, director general of the ILO. “We need that kind of leadership and resolve now.”