The loss in working hours due to the coronavirus pandemic means 1.6 billion workers may lose their livelihoods.
Nearly half the world's workers are at immediate risk of losing their jobs, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Wednesday.

The sobering statement will ring alarm bells in economies around the world, with every nation on the planet likely to be affected by the devastating fallout from the spread of coronavirus.

Some 1.6 billion workers in the informal economy - almost half of the global labour force, and those at the most vulnerable end of the employment ladder - are in danger of losing their livelihoods, said the ILO, the oldest agency of the United Nations, in its latest report.

"For millions of workers, no income means no food, no security and no future. Millions of businesses around the world are barely breathing," said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder.

"They have no savings or access to credit. These are the real faces of the world of work. If we don't help them now, they will simply perish."
The "informal economy" accounts for jobs that are neither taxed nor monitored by governments, and that make up a huge proportion of developing economies. Some two-thirds of the world's working people are employed in such "grey market" jobs.
'Employment crisis'

The ILO's latest assessment of the worldwide situation suggests the calamitous scale of the impact of the pandemic on jobs. Coronavirus has infected more than 3.1 million people globally, killed more than 226,000 and shut down several of the world's most major economies.

"It shows I think in the starkest possible terms that the jobs employment crisis and all of its consequences is deepening by comparison with our estimates of three weeks ago," Ryder told a briefing on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

The Trades Union Congress, a federation of trade unions in England and Wales, called for international action to protect workers.

"Hundreds of thousands of the most vulnerable workers are losing their jobs around the world every day. It's vital they all have the support they need to make ends meet and are not thrown into poverty," TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady, told Al Jazeera in an emailed statement.

"A crisis on this scale needs a global response. We need coordinated international action to support health, protect jobs, give everyone access to social security and boost local and national economies when the recovery comes."
https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/world-workers-face-losing-jobs-ilo-200427171840169.html

every sector painting a gloomy picture to depict the worst hit sector, hence the sector that needed top priority aid or attention.