GENEVA — Workplace disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are expected to wipe out labor equivalent to the effort of 195 million full-time workers, or 6.7% of hours clocked worldwide, in the second quarter of this year, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Tuesday. More than four out of five workers globally are affected by full or partial closures, it said in a report. The U.N. agency welcomed fiscal and monetary measures applied so far but urged countries to take steps to keep people connected to jobs they are no longer able to do, so fewer will end up unemployed. "What we do now in terms of maintaining that relationship between workers and their enterprises to keep them on the labor market, that will pay dividends when it comes to the trajectory and the gradient of recovery hopefully in the latter part of this year," ILO director-general Guy Ryder told a news conference.

Source: International New York Times April 07, 2020 14:15 UTC