Sustainable Development Goals 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

 Promote sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Global economic growth had stagnated even before the pandemic. The COVID-19 crisis caused chaos in the global economy, resulting in the worst recession since the Great Depression. 8.8% of global working hours will be lost in 2020 (compared to the fourth quarter of 2019), equivalent to 255 million full-time jobs, nearly four times the number lost during the global financial crisis of 2007–2009. Workers in informal employment are in danger as a result of the pandemic since they are not protected from illness or lockdowns. The crisis has had an especially negative impact on young employees and women. However, The United States of America and China is predicted to grow strongly in 2021, thanks to the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccinations and continuing fiscal and monetary assistance. While for many other nations,  economic growth will remain behind pre-pandemic levels for a long time.

The COVID19 pandemic has led to many job losses and unemployment among women and youth

By 2020, the worldwide unemployment rate will have increased by 1.1 percentage points to 6.5 per cent. The number of unemployed people in the world increased by 33 million to 220 million. A total of 81 million people have left the labour market. As an example, the unemployment rate in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Europe and Northern America, increased by at least 2 percentage points. Youth and women were hit particularly hard, with job losses of 8.7% and 5.0 per cent in 2020, respectively, compared to 3.7 per cent for adults and 3.9 per cent for men. Youth unemployment was already three times that of adults before the epidemic. During the crisis, women were more likely than males to leave the workforce to care for their children. This widened long-standing gender disparities in labour force participation rates.

In 2019, 22.3 per cent of the world's youth were not in school or training, a percentage that has remained unchanged for over a decade. Furthermore, quarterly data shows that the NEET rate increased from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the second quarter of 2020 in 42 of the 49 nations having data. This is hardly unexpected, given that young employees were hit more by job losses in 2020 than older workers. Technical and vocational education, as well as on-the-job training, were severely disrupted, prompting many students to drop out. Young women are twice as likely as young men to be unemployed and not enrolled in school or training around the world. In 2019, the global NEET rate for young women was 31.1 per cent, compared to 14.0 per cent for young males. Because more women than men have been forced out of the labour force as a result of the pandemic, the gender gap in NEETs is likely to widen.