Uneven economic recovery is expected in the second half of 2021, according to the UN, although newly created jobs will be of low quality.

The COVID-19 epidemic has triggered a global labour market catastrophe that will last for years, according to a report released by the International Labor Organization on Wednesday.

“All nations have experienced a dramatic decrease in employment and national income,” according to the UN agency, “which has exacerbated existing inequities and risks inflicting longer-term scarring consequences on workers and firms.”

The crisis has disproportionately affected vulnerable employees, particularly 2 billion in the informal sector, women, and young people, according to the 164-page World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2021 report.

According to the agency, 8.8% of total working hours will be lost in 2020, “equal to the hours done in a year by 255 million full-time workers.” According to the report, if the epidemic had not occurred, the globe would have created an estimated 30 million more employment by 2020.

Working hour losses have remained high due to recurring waves of the pandemic around the world, according to the Geneva-based agency, with a 4.4 percent loss corresponding to 140 million full-time jobs in the first quarter of 2021 and a 4.4 percent loss corresponding to 127 million full-time jobs in the second quarter.

“The crisis is far from finished,” the agency stated, noting that the worst-affected regions in the first half of this year were Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, and Central Asia.

According to the research, an uneven economic rebound would begin in the second half of 2021, fueled by advancements in vaccinations and large-scale fiscal investment. It estimates that the recovery will generate 100 million jobs this year and another 80 million by 2022, but that this is still considerably below pre-pandemic levels.

To make matters worse, many of the newly created positions are projected to be low-productivity and low-quality, according to the report.

“Recovery from COVID-19 is more than a health concern,” said Guy Ryder, the agency’s director. “Serious damage to economies and society must also be addressed.”

“The residual impacts of the epidemic could be with us for years in the form of lost human and economic potential, higher poverty and inequality,” Ryder said, unless efforts to generate good jobs and support the world’s most vulnerable people and hardest-hit economic sectors are hastened.