London: At least 225 million full-time jobs disappeared worldwide last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report published by the International Labour Organisation, a United Nations agency.
The losses are four times worse than those of the global financial crisis in 2009, worse even than the Great Depression. But the ultra-wealthy have seen their wealth soar.
According to another report, by anti-poverty non-profit Oxfam, the combined wealth of the world’s 10 richest men has risen by more than $US500 billion ($638 billion) since the crisis began - enough to vaccinate the entire planet and then some, according to the organisation.
Hospitality workers wait in line in a basement garage to apply for unemployment benefits in Los Angeles.Credit:AP
Both sets of findings, released on Monday, London time, identify inequality as one of the pandemic’s principal outcomes. “Job destruction has disproportionately affected low-paid and low‑skilled jobs” which “points to the risk of an uneven recovery, leading to still greater inequality in the coming years,” the ILO found.