A job fair in Wuhan, China, on December 02, 2020. (Photo: Xinhua/VNA)

The figures show that 8.8% of man hours were lost last year, equivalent to 255 million full-time jobs. This is about four times the number of jobs lost during the 2009 global financial crisis. These massive losses resulted in an 8.3% decline in global labor income, equivalent to 3.7 trillion USD or 4.4% of global GDP.

Guy Ryder, ILO Director General, called it the most severe crisis for the world of work since the Great Depression of the 1930s. He said its impact is far greater than that of the global financial crisis of 2009.

Women and younger workers were most affected. The hardest-hit sectors were accommodation, food services, retail, and manufacturing.