Twelve years after the Great Financial Crisis, the globe was once again rocked by a pandemic that exposed an unavoidable truth: the international economy has continually failed to provide even the most basic level of economic stability for everybody. Jobs are usually the first victim of any crisis a nation encounters, be it financial, environmental, geopolitical, or health-related. According to the current quo, unemployment is common and mostly unavoidable. Even worse, the conventional wisdom in economics on the “natural rate” of unemployment (and the associated NAIRU idea) holds that pricing and economic stability depend on unemployment.
Economic Stability and Growth
However, in the years after World War II, lengthy and agonizing jobless recoveries have turned into the norm; growth hasn’t brought about full employment; and labor markets have gotten weaker, creating jobs that are becoming more scarce and unstable. A world without jobs, in which millions of people are unable to find steady work that pays well, is an unfair one. Since the 1970s, when wages began to fall behind production and labor market `flexibilization” under neoliberal reforms meant union busting, a weakening of labor regulations, and the gamification of employment, the labor market has deteriorated dramatically for economic giants like the US. It was at this time that the goal of stabilization policy shifted from regulating working-class earnings to focusing on financial markets and tax breaks for the wealthiest. It is no coincidence that the top 1% of earners reaped the majority of income increases throughout this period due to systematic economic development. Even though the middle class grew globally as a result of some developing nations, primarily China, raising large portions of their impoverished populations out of poverty, income inequality continued to worsen as profits went to the world’s elite, trapping the poorest nations in an endless cycle of hardship.
Social Cohesion and Inclusion
Oxfam reports that in 2014, the wealthiest 80 individuals on the planet possessed the same amount of money as the world’s lowest half, however in the following year, just 62 people shared that fortune. Over the years, the pattern persisted, and by 2019, just 26 people had fortune equivalent to the poorest half of the globe. The epidemic made economic disparities in the globe worse by lowering the earnings of 99 percent of people on the planet and forcing an additional 160 million people into forced poverty. There is an inherent link between inequality and unemployment. The relationship between stabilization initiatives and inequality and unemployment is also true. Although they are not the sole factors, labor markets and working conditions play a significant role in allocating the benefits of increased productivity and revenue.
Skills Development and Innovation
The postwar era’s frantic worldwide discourse on securing global full employment and the absolute need for benefiting from free trade has long since passed. In addition to perpetuating and feeding inequality, mass unemployment and precarious work also weakened social solidarity both inside and beyond national boundaries and eroded economic democracy. Nothing about this was predetermined. Mass unemployment and precarious work are neither inevitable or natural; rather, they are the result of certain policy commitments. The social, political, and economic consequences have also been felt by the world economy. The global discourse on restructuring the economy is resuming in light of the COVID-19 epidemic and ongoing economic challenges, with a special focus on labor markets. A recent global movement to democratize work has garnered support from thousands of signatures and been published in 45 papers in 26 languages. It identified the contemporary Job Guarantee concept as a cornerstone of the global environmental agenda and highlighted the right to decent and remunerative employment as a critical demand.
In conclusion, The Job Guarantee is a structural change, an improved macroeconomic stabilizer, and a labor standard for other occupations, far from being “just another jobs program.” It may serve as the cornerstone of a paradigm for policy that is based on the ideas of global solidarity and economic democracy. It can also guarantee that the widely acknowledged right to good and paid labor for all is a real, enforceable legal right rather than only an idealistic declaration. The world’s largest job creator does not guarantee steady or well-paying work. Economic crises are now typically followed by protracted, agonizing, and unemployed recovery periods. The COVID-19 epidemic presented a chance to democratize the labor force and emerge from the crisis with improved working conditions and universal access to quality jobs. In addition to addressing the worldwide pandemic, there is an urgent need to address the problems of climate change and economic instability.
