UN agency predicts 305 million could lose full-time jobs in coming months

The United Nations’ main labor body again raises its prediction of job losses due to the coronavirus pandemic, estimating the equivalent of 305 million full-time jobs could be lost in the second quarter alone.

The International Labor Organization says the expansion of longer lockdown measures has underpinned the increase from its previous estimate of losses 195 million full-time job equivalents — based on an average 48-hour work week — in the current quarter.

The agency, which unites business, labor groups and governments, estimates how many work hours are likely to be lost, and calculates how many full-time jobs that would make.

The ILO also projects that 1.6 billion workers in the “informal economy,” which includes work without proper contracts or oversight by government regulation and taxes, “stand in immediate danger of having their livelihoods destroyed.”

That’s nearly half the global workforce of 3.3 billion people.

— AP