The OECD Brings Bad News: 22 Million People Unemployed In Rich Countries Due To COVID-19, 3 Million Graduates Failed To Find Work

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) provides bad news. According to the OECD, 22 million jobs in the world's richest countries have been lost due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic that has hit the world since 2020.

In the last six months alone, the OECD explained, the number of unemployed increased by 60 percent. This number continues to increase until the first quarter of 2021.

The agency even projects that the unemployment rate will grow rapidly in the long term. According to the OECD, the current economic recovery in various countries has not been able to restore the job market.

“The job market is likely to recover to its pre-pandemic state in 2023. A strong economic recovery is underway in OECD countries. However, that has not yet fully translated into enough new jobs to return employment levels to pre-pandemic levels in most economies members", the OECD said in its report, quoted by CNN Business, Friday, July 9.

The OECD also noted that the COVID-19 pandemic had caused 3 million people who had just graduated to fail to find work. This is a large number and reverses the trend of the past decade. Not only the decline in employment, but the OECD also said the pandemic also reduced workers' income.

The decline was most pronounced for workers with low incomes rather than high ones. Noted, their salaries fell more than 28 percent in all developed countries.

Based on these findings, the OECD provides input to all governments to continuously improve the quality of workers through various pieces of training. Especially in the green and digital industrial sectors as well as sectors that are still quite effective even though there are restrictions.

In addition, the OECD also asks the government of each country to continue to provide assistance to workers, although this cannot be given for too long because it will pile up the government's fiscal burden.

"Withdrawing fiscal support too quickly would risk jeopardizing the recovery. But on the other hand, holding on to support for too long would also risk jeopardizing the strength and quality of the long-term recovery by slowing the reallocation of capital and labor needed across the economy", said OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann.