section_path: Unemployment
section_name: Unemployment
paragraph_text: Unemployment
  
  The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the interconnectedness of a diverse world. Already at a disadvantage pre-pandemic, women, ethnic minorities, indigenous and tribal peoples, young people, persons with disabilities and migrant workers are among those who have been hardest hit.
  
  The International Labour Organization stated on 7 April that it predicted a 6.7% loss of job hours globally in the second quarter of 2020, equivalent to 195 million full-time jobs. They also estimated that 30 million jobs were lost in the first quarter alone, compared to 25 million during the Great Recession. The effects of COVID-19 on unemployment lasted much longer than was initially expecting. Almost 18 months after the start of the pandemic, the state of New York was still down almost a quarter of the jobs that were available in the hospitality industry pre-pandemic. This was the largest percent in any state in the United States, but other states still faced a similar issue.
  
  In January and February 2020, during the height of the epidemic in Wuhan, about 5 million people in China lost their jobs. Many of China's nearly 300 million rural migrant workers have been stranded at home in inland provinces or trapped in Hubei province.
  
  In March 2020, more than 10 million Americans lost their jobs and applied for government aid. Total nonfarm jobs fell from a high of 152.5 million in February 2020 to 130.2 million in April. As of February 2021, the US had about 143 million nonfarm jobs.
  
  The lockdown in India has left tens of millions of migrant workers unemployed.
  
  The survey from the Angus Reid Institute found that 44% of Canadian households have experienced some type of job loss.
  
  Nearly 900,000 workers lost their jobs in Spain since it went into lockdown in mid-March 2020. During the second half of March, 4 million French workers applied for temporary unemployment benefits and 1 million British workers applied for a universal credit scheme.
  
  Almost half a million companies in Germany have sent their workers on a government-subsidized short-time working schemes known as Kurzarbeit. The German short-time work compensation scheme has been copied by France and Britain.
  
  The pandemic's economic impacts are likely to increase sexual exploitation and child marriage, leaving women and girls in fragile economies and refugee contexts particularly vulnerable.
  
  The potential combined impact of COVID-19 on unemployment, households’ purchasing power, food prices, and food availability in local markets could severely jeopardize access to food in the most vulnerable countries.