VANISHING JOBS FOR YOUNG COULD CREATE ‘LOCK-DOWN GENERATION'

Bashar Ali Naim used to work in a perfume and accessories store in Baghdad, earning $480 per week on average. About three months ago, the coronavirus outbreak swept into Iraq, and the 28-year-old father of two has been out of work ever since.

“I am suffering a lot without work. I feel like a human with a body but no soul, especially when I look at the kids and wonder: How will I provide for them?” he said.

Naim is not alone: The U.N. labor agency reported Wednesday that more than one in every six young workers globally have stopped working during the pandemic, warning that long-term fallout could lead to a “lock-down generation” if steps aren’t taken to ease the crisis.

The International Labor Organization, in a new look at the impact of the pandemic on jobs, says that work hours equivalent to 305 million fulltime jobs have been lost due to the COVID-19 crisis. Many young workers face economic hardship and despair about the future.

ILO Director-General Guy Ryder warned of the “danger” that young workers aged 15 to 28, in particular, could face, from inability to get proper training or gain access to jobs that could extend well beyond the pandemic and last far into their working careers.

In a survey, ILO and its partners found that over one in six of such young workers were no longer working during the pandemic, many with their workplaces shuttered or their usual clienteles stuck at home. Young people were already in a precarious position relative to other age categories, with work rates still below those before the 2008 economic crisis even before the pandemic hit.