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 Labor Organisation, losses four times worse than those of the global financial crisis in 2009, worse even than the Great Depression. But the ultrawealthy have seen their wealth soar.
According to another report, by anti-poverty nonprofit 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, 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.
That unevenness is already apparent: Global poverty could take 14-times longer to return to pre-pandemic levels than the recovery of the world’s wealthiest, according to Oxfam.
