Unemployment in Latin America will last until 2024

The International Labor Organization (ILO) released its edition of the Labor Overview of Latin America and the Caribbean where it noted that the economic growth evidenced during 2021 in the region did not have enough impact to reduce unemployment and recover the labor market. On the contrary, the pandemic has caused high unemployment figures and an increase in informality.

The ILO director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Vinícius Pinheiro, said: “The labor outlook is uncertain, the persistence of infections due to the pandemic and the prospect of mediocre economic growth this year could prolong the employment crisis until 2023 or even until 2024”.

The international organization highlights that the region registered a strong level of economic recovery, obtaining growth of over 6 %. However, this situation did not make it possible to recover the number of jobs lost.

Four million unemployed due to the pandemic

During the second quarter of 2020, 49 million jobs were lost in Latin America and the Caribbean and by the end of 2021, 4.5 million still remain to be recovered, of which approximately 4 million are a consequence of the crisis caused by Covid -19.

By the end of 2021, an average unemployment rate for the region was estimated in the order of 9.6 %. This figure is lower than that registered in 2020, which stood at 10.6 %. However, it is considered a setback when compared to the 8 % registered in 2019, which is used as a reference to calculate the impact of two years of the pandemic.

It is currently estimated that there are some 28 million people in the region who are looking for a job without finding it.

As explained by Pinheiro, in “Latin America and the Caribbean, the pandemic had a more severe impact due to social comorbidities such as informality and inequality (…) contributing to the loss of jobs and income, without adequate social protection regimes for support people in such a difficult time.”

M. Rodriguez

Source: financedigital.com