According to the United Nations labour body, 1.6 billion workers in informal sectors are very likely to lose their jobs, that is about half of the worlds global workforce face the extreme danger of losing their source of livelihood due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The United Nations agency said, “More than 430 million enterprises in hard-hit sectors such as retail and manufacturing take a huge risk of serious disruption”.
The Director-General of the International labour organization, Guy Ryder said as the disaster caused by the global pandemic rises the need to protect the health workers which are the most vulnerable become very important. Worldwide there are 3.3 billion workers and two billion of them are in the informal economy. According to the estimate of the ILO, the global workforce that is working in the informal sector has had to witness a 60 per cent dip of income in the first month of the crisis.
According to Ryder “For millions of workers, no income means no food, no security and no future. Millions of business around the world are barely breathing. They have no saving or access to credit”. The ILO also said that international coordination on stimulus packages and debt relief measures will be critical to making recovery effective. Compared to pre-crisis levels the situation has had to worsen for major regions. Q2 estimates suggest a 12.4 per cent loss in working hours in the Americas, and for Europe an 11.8 per cent. The organization has called for a targeted, flexible and urgent measures to support businesses and workers particularly the small businesses and those included in the informal economy.
