The pandemic will destroy the equivalent of 100 million full-time jobs by 2021, a number that will fall to 26 million by 2022but employment growth will not compensate for the losses incurred until 2023, the ILO warned on Wednesday.

In its updated report on the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the labor market, the International Labor Organization (ILO) slightly worsens its initial forecast from earlier this year due to factors such as the slow pace of vaccination in many countries, which may delay economic recovery.

The number of hours equivalent to 100 million jobs destroyed includes not only the jobs that the ILO estimates will be lost (about 14 million in 2021), but also those resulting from reductions in working hours.

In 2020, the ILO estimated that the pandemic destroyed working hours equivalent to 255 million jobs worldwide, a number it expects to more than halve by 2021 and about a tenth by 2022, although the still negative figures show that "the employment crisis is far from over."

According to the new forecasts, the Geneva-based organization expects the number of unemployed people in the world to stand at 205 million in 2022, well above the 187 million in 2019, bringing the unemployment rate to 5.7%,

The report calculates that the rates of lost work hours worldwide were 4.8% in the first quarter and 4.4% in the second quarter.

However, in Latin America and Europe, the regions where the labor market has been hardest hit by the pandemic, the percentage of lost work hours has been higher, at 8% in the first quarter, while it is expected to reach 6% in the second quarter.

The ILO is confident that the global labor market recovery will accelerate in the second half of the year, although this forecast is conditional on the crisis not worsening, with the drawback of unequal access to vaccines and the limited ability of many economies to support fiscal stimulus measures.

"The positive effects will remain limited in geographic scope unless action is agreed at the international level, both in terms of vaccine provision and financial support, including debt relief," the ILO says.

On the other hand, the organization warns that many of the new jobs created in the expected recovery will be of poorer quality, and the nearly 2 billion workers living in the informal economy may be particularly vulnerable.

"There can be no real recovery without a recovery of decent jobs," warns ILO Director-General Guy Ryder, who recommends coordinated strategies among governments to help the hardest hit sectors, such as hospitality, trade, construction, and manufacturing.

The ILO estimates that there are now 108 million more "working poor" (those who must subsist on less than $3.2 a day), a return to 2015 figures and a new challenge to the sustainable development goal of eradicating global poverty by 2030.

The organization's report indicates that women were hurt more than men in the labor market during the pandemic, as evidenced by the fact that women's employment contracted by 5%, compared to 3.9% for men.

The same can be said for youth employment, which fell by 8.7% in 2020, while the average for adults was 3.7%, consequences for generations entering the labor market that, according to the ILO, "could linger for years."

To promote labor market recovery, the ILO recommends that governments invest in sectors that can be a source of decent jobs and promote social dialogue.