Amid massive drops in working hours due to the COVID-19 pandemic, around 81 million jobs in the Asia-Pacific region were wiped out in 2020, according to a new report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

According to the ILO, the pandemic has impacted jobs and income, with women and young people being disproportionately affected. In nearly all economies with available quarterly data for 2020, employment levels contracted compared to 2019.

"Low levels of social security coverage and limited institutional capacity in many countries have made it difficult to help enterprises and workers back on their feet, a situation compounded when large numbers remain in the informal economy," said Ms Chihoko Asada Miyakawa, ILO Assistant Director General and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific.

"These pre-crisis weaknesses have left far too many exposed to the pain of economic insecurity when the pandemic hit and inflicted its toll on working hours and jobs," she added.

The crisis' impact has been far-reaching, with underemployment surging as millions of workers are asked to work reduced hours or no hours at all, the report noted. Overall, working hours in the Asia-Pacific decreased by an estimated 15.2% in the second quarter and by 10.7% in the third quarter of 2020, relative to pre-crisis levels.

"Working-hour losses are also influenced by the millions of persons moving outside the labour force or into unemployment as job creation in the region collapsed," found the ILO report.

Using available quarterly data, regional employment rate in 2020 showed a 4.2% decline compared with the pre-crisis trend as unemployment increased from 4.4% in 2019 to somewhere between 5.2% to 5.7%.

"The report shows a clear picture of young people and women being pushed out of work compared to other workers," says Ms Sara Elder, Senior Economist at the ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific and lead author of the report.

Overall, women were more likely to see a larger decline in working hours and employment and also more likely to move into inactivity than men, as female employment dropped by 4.6% compared to men's 4%.

For young people, the overall employment loss was 3 to 18 times higher than their share in total employment, the ILO said.

The report also warns that given the scope of the damage to the labour markets, the overall size of the fiscal response in the region has been insufficient, especially in the region's developing economies. As a result of fiscal expenditure gaps, the crisis is likely to exacerbate inequalities among countries in the Asia and the Pacific.

Preliminary estimates suggest that an additional 22 million to 25 million people could fall into working poverty this year in the region.