Unemployment and hiring sentiments: The first six months

An analysis of the hiring and unemployment data across major economies and how the next six months looks like

- Anushree Sharma

On average, unemployment is the second most elephantine concern for economies around the world. According to a research conducted by Ipsos, COVID-19 World Worries, it was found that unemployment was the biggest concern for 27 countries.

It is no news that COVID-19 has damaged the employment market hugely. Some of the biggest economies like the US are experiencing unemployment levels as that was experienced in WWII. While a lot of reports and experts suggest an optimistic overview of the labor market in the second half of the year, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO), the labor market recovery during the second half of 2020 will be uncertain and incomplete. In the baseline scenario, working hour losses are likely to still be in the order of 4.9 percent (equivalent to 140 million full-time jobs) in the fourth quarter of the year. However, under the pessimistic scenario, which assumes a second wave of the pandemic in the second half of 2020, working-hour losses would be as high as 11.9 percent (equivalent to 340 million full-time jobs) in the last quarter. Even in the optimistic scenario, which assumes a fast recovery, global working hours are unlikely to return to the pre-crisis level by the end of 2020.

Here are some critical hiring and unemployment sentiments we have observed in the last six months due to the ongoing pandemic:

1. Unemployment rate