ILO: 195 million full-time jobs could be lost due to virus

The UN's labour organisation estimates that the equivalent of 195 million full-time jobs could be lost in the second quarter alone from the COVID-19 outbreak, with businesses and plants shuttered worldwide.

The projection from the International Labour Organization is based on an emerging impact of the virus, and it amounts to a big jump from its March 18 prediction for an extra 25 million jobs losses for all of 2020.

"These figures speak powerfully for themselves: That the world of work is suffering an absolutely extraordinary fall," said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder.

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

The actual increase in unemployment is likely to be less than 195 million full-time jobs because many workers will experience only a partial reduction in work hours, and because of "widespread use" of measures to help workers keep their jobs, ILO said.

The agency says full or partial lockdown measures now affect nearly 2.7 billion workers, or about 81 percent of the global workforce.

Some 1.25 billion of those are in hard-hit sectors like hotel and food services, manufacturing, retail, and business and administrative activities.

It says the impact is "especially harsh" for unprotected workers and others in the informal economy, while upper-middle income and high-income countries face sweeping job cuts.